Misfortune happens
by rock96
Summary: It is a story of a certain unfortunate boy whose right hand could negate divine blessings. It is a story of poor girls who suffered. It is a story of magicians who despaired. It is a story of life and death. Marked M tentatively. No idea what would happen next.
1. Prologue

**A/N: **Greetings to you, dear readers who were not afraid to take a look at my work.

This is an idea that was drilling my brain since the last year, but I lacked inspiration to realize it. I think, there are not many words that could be said before reading a prologue, so... Enjoy.

* * *

**Prologue. The opening night. To_the_Beginning.**

**Part 1.**

That particular night was clear and calm. The air was still, and it was a little hard to breath. Starlight was disturbingly bright despite the urban scenery. Such a mismatch made a little girl's head a bit dizzy even if she did not really acknowledge that fact.

Speaking of the girl, she had unusual looks. She was clad in pristine white nun robe with sophisticated golden patterns on it. Her headwear could not hide her beautiful white hair completely, giving out the fact that the girl was clearly a foreigner in such distant lands of Japan. The girl's emerald eyes had a sharp look, and they darted a heavy stare here and there as if she wanted to discern something unusual in the surroundings.

It was somewhat hard to tell what she was looking for, because her very surroundings were strange. At present, she was running desperately on the rooftop of a multitenant building. Her little body was swaying a bit due to fatigue but she still had some strength left to go on.

In front of her was another building, the same as the one she was on. The girl frowned, measuring the distance with just her eyesight. It was hard for a normal human even in a bright day, not even speaking of a dark night lit only by distant stars. The moon was not on the sky yet.

However, the girl was not a normal human. She just heaved a sigh and sped up significantly, making use of her remaining strength. It was unthinkable that her small body could run so fast. Nevertheless, she continued to run despite the protests of her worn out mind which wanted some time to rest.

And so, the moment came. The girl's foot stepped on the edge of the rooftop and she leapt into the air. Sadly, her hunger let out a growl of protest, disrupting the young girl's concentration and her jump trajectory was distorted. She would fall down, the girl realized.

She closed her eyes and clapped her hands together, praying to the One who would always listen to her.

"O the God! Do not let your shepherd become the cause of these poor people's misfortune!"

The girl knew that it was already impossible to change anything.

She would fall down on the balcony and lose her consciousness because of an impact and her hunger.

After that, the building would be set ablaze by those who tried to hunt her down.

She did not want these poor people to meet such cruel fate. The girl was a nun to protect people and bear their sinful lives to clean their souls. She was not designated to bring misfortune to those who did not even know the truth about that dark world!

However, fate was merciful.

The girl felt something smashing into her back, prolonging her jump. Her pristine white robe glowed magnificently, and she somehow made it to the other rooftop. The girl did not even have time to regain her balance. Stumbling and trembling, she started to run again, knowing that her pursuers were near. But, instead of being fearful, she was thanking the God.

"Thank you very much, o the merciful One!"

The night was still young.

**Part 2.**

Academy City was a foundation of the gates to the new age. In the course of over fifty years, it accumulated enough wealth and brilliant minds that it ended up being on the top of scientific world. As such, many rumors circulated in the world about Academy City.

Some of them were true.

Some of them were simply misunderstandings.

Some were born out of fear before the unknown.

There was only one fact that was acknowledged by everyone in the world. Supernatural abilities existed, and they could be brought out. After all, it was the main focus of Academy City's Curriculum.

There were many experiments all over the world, which were intended to bring life to the new generation of soldiers. The Manhattan Project was the most famous one, conducted by the American. Soviet Union and Nazi Germany made use of various drugs to manufacture the process of creating ideal soldiers. Despite their efforts, the breakthrough was made not by some giant power, but by a newborn city. With that, Japan gained a big political weight which allowed it to restructure and rebuild itself quickly during the Cold War.

Nowadays, Academy City was surrounded by big, tall, sturdy walls which were nigh impenetrable by armies due to the state of the art technologies. However, not only the lands were secured. The Internet was too.

That was the main reason why there were so many rumors about Academy City.

There was also a little detail that helped to establish its mental image. The official policy of the city was to deny that there were supernatural abilities that could be developed without scientific means. Of course, that statement was arguable since there were natural-born people with abilities, such as Gemstones. However, that argument was long since forgotten despite protests of religious organizations.

Yet, even within Academy City itself were people that were the object of such arguments.

For example, there was a certain blond boy with shades on his eyes. He wore a Hawaiian shirt and had his hands in the pockets of his old jeans. His body contained a unique power that made him quite valuable to Science Side. To be precise, it held two sources of power that were the polar opposites.

As a normal student of Academy City, the boy was an Esper. It meant that he had supernatural ability. But he was not, by no means, valuable just because of that. By the six-level scale, used in Academy City, he was nothing but a powerless Level 0. From the distorted point of view of Academy City's residents.

What made him special was the fact that he was a Hybrid. His body was able to convert his life energy into mystical energy called mana. In other words, he was a Magician.

At the moment, he was standing on the rooftop of some building holding binoculars in his hand. He knew that it was meaningless to look through his shades at night but did not bother to take them off. What happened on the street did not require an amazing eyesight or the help of binoculars.

There was a lone man in a white suit that was clearly discernible in the dark of the night. He was standing in front of four buildings which made a famous Misawa Cram School. It was a good school that helped even drop-outs to brush up their skills and learn enough to pass exams to some universities. A while ago, there was a scientific cult established there. Apparently, it was centered around one special girl.

Deep Blood.

Such was a title of the girl. It was rumored that her blood could kill blood-sucking creatures, or vampires. Some scientists gone mad in their pursuit of the unknown, and so they decided to kidnap the girl and conduct some experiments.

In the end of the day, it resulted into the scene before the boy's eyes.

"Aureolus Ezzard, huh? What a twist." The boy muttered under his breathe.

He could discern unique green hair on the man's head. Coupled with his combat style it was not hard to guess the identity of a famous alchemist. After all, Aureolus was not a descendant of Paracelsus for nothing. His golden chain with a sharp blade on its end was flying around, turning his opponents into statues made of gold.

There was no blood.

However, it did not make the picture any more pretty. The gaping wounds on the poor victims' bodies were not closed, after all.

The man calmly strolled, not making any attempts to shield from incoming attacks or to attack more proactively. The attacks were blocked by some invisible barrier around him, while his chain was more than enough to take care of his opponents. In a mere minute, he took down his enemies and entered the building.

"Damn it, Aleister. Was it within your calculations too?" The boy grimly looked down on the street once more and turned away.

There was nothing he could do.

For now.

**Part 3.**

Academy City had a plenty of unusual-looking students. As such, it was not surprising to see a pair of a tall, red-haired man with a tattoo on his right cheek under the eye, who wore a black robe, and a tall woman in a white t-shirt, showing her midriff, and a pair of jeans with its leg ripped off.

However, most people would be surprised if they knew their real ages. The man, while looking as a twenty-something guy, was just 14. The mature-looking woman with a fully-formed body just hit 18. It was a wonder how their ages differed from their mature looks.

They stood in the middle of an eerily silent street. There were no cars, no passers-by, no nothing. Only that strange pair.

The boy held an old-looking, by Academy City's standards, cell phone near his ear.

"Archbishop? It's odd."

_"What is odd, would I like to ask." _A serene voice flowed out of speakers. She was speaking in broken Japanese which was decipherable but it was somehow hard to understand sometimes.

"You, calling me all of sudden. We're in the middle of pursuit, you know?" The boy spoke aggressively, despite the clear difference in ranks.

_"I cleanly understand your situation, but I have got an important message for you." _

"Cleanly?" The boy raised an eyebrow in surprise.

_"There is a change of plans."_ Suddenly, the serene voice started speaking in an ideal English.

"What?" The boy was stupefied. "Hey, Archbishop, what could be more important than securing Index?!"

_"It is just secondary mission. However, it is a problem that should be eliminated before you two capture Index Librorum Prohibitorum."_

The boy opened his mouth in protest but the girl took the phone out of his hand.

"Hey, Kanzaki!"

"Keep calm, Stiyl. Index is our first priority, but we need to hear out what Archbishop says." The girl said and brought the phone to her ear. "Hello?"

_"Ah, Kanzaki. What a pleasure."_

"What's the matter?"

_"However,"_ Archbishop continued nonchalantly. _"I need you to remain on standby. That's a mission for Stiyl alone."_

"What?"

_"Don't worry, you'll be his back-up. Stiyl will be filled-up on the situation by the General Superintendant of Academy City himself."_

"Wait, Archbishop, I don't…"

_"Wait for a messenger. Bye-bye."_ Archbishop hang up.

The girl frowned deeply and slowly handed the phone to the boy. Suddenly, she turned sharply.

There was a girl who appeared seemingly out of nowhere. She wore a jeans jacket, a dark-blue mini-skirt and something resembling sarashi. There were twintails on her head. Her piercing gaze was directed only on Stiyl.

"Are you a messenger?" Kanzaki asked.

The girl nodded slowly. It seemed that she was not feeling good since she gritted her teeth, looking annoyed and a little dizzy.

"I was told to bring someone called Stiyl Magnus to the Windowless Building. Are you the one I was looking for?"

**Part 4.**

"So, you did shock these guys into submission?"

The scene changed to the bridge.

There was a pair of young teenagers. A young boy, seemingly exhausted, was standing in the middle of the bridge with his face pale. About twenty meters in front of him was a young girl in a neat sweater, pleated skirt and a white blouse. Her high-standard clothes showed that she was from a prestigious school.

On the other hand, the boy's clothes were simple. He had a black jacket thrown on his orange t-shirt and black trousers. His hair stood out somehow, with it looking like a bunch of spikes. His name was Kamijou Touma. And currently he found himself in quite a precarious situation.

Some time ago he was being pursued by some delinquents he met in a certain family restaurant. He saw that they surrounded the girl who stood before him now, and then Touma decided that there was nothing to lose. As such, he directed the delinquents' attention to himself and ran away.

It was only after two kilometers of despair, blood and cold sweat that he did lose his pursuers. Sadly, the method used by the girl completely turned all his efforts to nothing.

"So I did. They were quite annoying."

Touma did not know the girl's name. What he knew though, was the fact that she studied in Tokiwadai Middle School which was a part of famous School Garden. What saddened him the most, was the fact that, while he was just a Level 0, she was a famous Level 5. #3, infamous Railgun.

"C'mon, just let me go. I did nothing wrong, you know. I don't even know why you were chasing me for a whole month!" Touma whined, knowing that it was meaningless. She would not listen to him.

"You don't know, you say, huh?" The girl flashed an angelic smile. Touma shivered. "Then why…"

There was a flash.

"…Are you unharmed?" The girl inquired looking at the devastated bridge.

Touma nervously smiled with his right arm outstretched. A lightning formed on the girl's hair and then flew towards him. With a miraculous luck he shielded with his right arm which negated the electric current. The lightning dissipated but it still did damage the bridge.

"Miraculous luck, eh?" Touma muttered. He always had terrible luck due to his right arm, Imagine Breaker. It was an ability that allowed him to negate all sorts of supernatural abilities.

"What?" The girl asked.

"Well… I've got no idea?"

"Wrong answer."

The girl started a light barrage of lightning attacks.

The boy smiled nervously. His body took action before he could even realize what he was doing. Twisting his whole torso around, he dodged two of the incoming lightning while his right hand intercepted the last one.

He took deep breathes, frowning at the smell of ozone.

"Hey, hey, aren't you a bit tough on a simple Level 0?" Touma asked, breathing hardly.

"I repeat, why are you unharmed?" The girl asked incredulously. "Yeah, you might be a slow-witted idiot who can't even bend a damn spoon with all electrodes stabbed in your brain…"

"Stop that. I can bend a spoon with pliers. You all fancy these supernatural abilities as if they are everything." Touma winced. "They are just a byproduct, are they not?"

"Ah… Why would you talk about something like a god's answer?" The girl sighed and shook her head. "Let's change a topic. Have you heard about Railgun?"

She produced an arcade coin out of her skirt. The girl flipped it with her thumb.

"Hey, hey. Aren't you going a little over-" Touma shuddered, knowing that he would be unable to stop such an attack.

"Nah." The girl's answer was simple.

The coin landed back on her arm and then turned into plasma flow. Ionized air charged past Touma, missing him. However, the heat produced by it was almost unbearable.

"I thought I'd die." Touma muttered weakly, touching his cheeks with his hands. Hopefully, his face was unharmed.

"Don't you go like that." The girl smiled like a cat. Touma tearfully looked at the thundercloud which appeared on the sky. "It's not like it's the first time."

"What misfortune."

* * *

And welcome to the end of prologue. Did you like it? If you did, I am very pleased.

As you can probably see already, I am going to mix the first and the second volumes of Index together, playing with timeline a little. It means that the July for Touma will be much more harder than it was in original! Aren't I cruel?

Initially, I simply intended to make a story centered on poor Aisa. However, I knew that I would not be able to write anything about her alone. Because of that, I decided to approach the problem as you see now.

Following that, I thought, 'Hey, volume 2 does not really make sense! Aureolus could not possibly forget the date when Index would be forced to have her memory erased!' That's how it had begun.

By all intents, please do comment and speak of mistakes that I did. But, I'd like no shippings. It is an awful thing that makes people hate their favorite books, manga and anime. So... yeah.

See you next time!


	2. Chapter 1

**A/N: **Hello again. It was fast, wasn't it?

I think, I'll go with Kamachi-sensei's chapter structure. By the way, all the rights on the characters and setting are his. Unless I'd introduce OCs.

Expect three or four more chapters till the end of this arc and an epilogue. And... I'll leave some things till the end of the chapter.

* * *

**Chapter 1. Peaceful days. The_Night_has_Come.**

**Part 1.**

There were many wonders in Academy City.

Some of them were unconfirmed rumors.

Let us take for an example Imaginary Number District Five Elements Institution. It was said that it was the very first laboratory which gave a start to the rise of Academy City. However, no one knew where it was nowadays. Still, there were some rumors that Tree Diagram, supercomputer sent into the space, could be made using only materials from Imaginary Number District.

Another example would be Clone Dolly workshop. DNA-maps of many saints and famous people, who changed the world, were held there, rumors said. It was assumed that Academy City was able to violate international regulations and create clones with the help of its technologies. No one was able to prove these assumptions, though.

However, there was one wonder which could be seen by anyone who lived in Academy City.

It was the Windowless Building.

It was said that each and every room in that building did not have windows and doors. Basically, each room was a completely enclosed space. It was unknown how the needed materials were provided there but most people would prefer to not know while those who knew were forced to keep their mouths shut. Because of that, the most sturdy fortress in the world was said to be impenetrable.

Nevertheless, there were methods to move through the building. For example, you could use high-level Teleporters to bring the guests to the Windowless Building.

Stiyl Magnus felt a bit dizzy after a small trip to the room where he found himself now. For some reason, the messenger refused to send him here right away, insisting that they needed to walk some distance on foot. What a weirdo. She was a Teleporter, was she not?

The boy looked around in amazement. He saw countless bright lines that lit the dark room and made its interior. His gaze, though, caught the sight of wires and tubes that led him to the center of the room where the General Superintendant of Academy City himself resided.

"Good morrow to you, General Superintendant." Stiyl said, trying to hide the surprise in his eyes.

It was hard, to say the least.

General Superintendant was an eccentric person, indeed. It was impossible to discern their gender just from observing them for they appeared like a male, yet feminine, like a child, yet having the look of an elder man, like a saint, yet resembling a criminal. It was like they had thrown away everything that made a human. Or, maybe, they gathered everything to become what they were now? It was like a Buddhist's riddle.

What caught the young Magician's attention was the object where General Superintendant floated upside-down. It was a huge cylinder, four meters in diameter and ten meters in height. The cylinder was filled with some colored liquid but Stiyl had no idea what it was.

"Likewise, young man. Just for your information, the liquid in the cylinder is a weakly alkaline recovery fluid." General Superintendant said with a calm face. His long white hair somehow had its form fixed behind their green robe.

"I… have no idea what it is." Stiyl decided to tell the truth to cover his sudden fear. He knew that it was unlikely that his mind was read but he did not want to risk.

"I hope, you do not."

"Well, it's time to omit pleasantries, is it not?" Stiyl said, feeling the darkness hid by General Superintendant's words.

"It certainly is. I guess, your superiors already informed you that there was a significant change of your plans, did they not?" General Superintendant asked.

"They left out details."

"That troublesome woman…"

Stiyl was surprised to see a hint of anger in General Superintendant's eyes. He almost thought that the twisted human in front of him was incapable of showing any emotions.

"Let's proceed to the explanations then. The problem your superiors mentioned is a trouble for both Magic and Science Sides."

Stiyl remained silent.

"If it was a ruckus made by one of Espers, the city itself would use one of 70,632 ways to deal with them. However, once a Magician enters the picture, we need external help from Magic Side. We cannot let an Esper defeat a Magician, after all."

"So, that's where I am needed." Stiyl muttered.

"Exactly. There will be some help from Academy City's residents, though. There's the structure of your infiltration target."

"Misawa… Cram School?" Stiyl slowly examined the plans of the building and information about his mission. "What do you mean by 'help'?"

"I will be sending one Esper to help you with your mission."

"But haven't you said that you cannot do it because of political issues?" Stiyl raised an eyebrow.

"He's just a Level 0. The threat of him leaking secrets of both Sides is minimal, his knowledge is not enough for something like that. Besides…" General Superintendant smiled. "I am interested. What is the meaning behind Deep Blood's ability? What would bring his involvement?"

Stiyl shuddered. That General Superintendant was twisted enough to view humans as nothing but chess figures on a giant desk. Besides, he did not welcome the thought that they were able to reject so many human aspects except for one – that body. General Superintendant was surely able to free himself from such restrictions brought by frail human body through the help of machinery.

"It is a dangerous thought, my dear Magician." General Intendant smiled.

Stiyl sighed.

**Part 2.**

Kamijou Touma sighed.

He was currently on his Summer studies because he missed a few months' share of lessons. That morning, on July 20th, he received a cute message from his petite teacher who was standing behind her desk. In fact he could hardly even see her pink hair.

Their homeroom teacher, Tsukuyomi Komoe, was a woman with a body of a small girl. She was one of "Seven Wonders of Academy City", who was said to obtain the secret of eternal youth. It was, of course, just a rumor but, considering her real age, it might have some grounds behind it.

Currently Komoe-sensei decided to start with revising some old material.

"Let us start from the basics. Kamijou-chan, what do you know about the theory behind Espers' abilities?"

"Teach, I fail to understand how Schrödinger's theory backs up the Personal Reality." Touma said lazily. He was met with inquisitive gaze of Fukiyose who showed him her fist. He was more afraid of her famous forehead that could crush even walls. Or so he heard. "C'mon, what are you doing here anyways, Fukiyose?"

"To keep you all in check." The girl answered. Her long black hair flowed behind her back, leaving her forehead open. Her dark violet school uniform could not hide her outstanding forms which naturally attracted attention of male half of the classroom. It was sad that Fukiyose held enough destructive power to completely break their delusions with bare hands.

"The more the merrier, Kami-yan!" Blue-haired boy with a piercing in his ear cheerfully said. Like Fukiyose, he was a class representative. With his open-minded nature, it was almost natural that he had that role except for the fact that he was a huge pervert.

"Yeah, yeah." Kamijou said tiredly, frowning at his growling stomach. After last night's fight with Railgun, his electronics at the dorm died completely, meaning that food in his fridge was already wasted by the time he came home. That morning he ruined his breakfast by somehow managing to throw his instant noodles into faucet and breaking his credit card. In the end of the day, he was just a hungry high school student.

"Fukiyose-chan?" Komoe-sensei asked tearfully.

The girl stood up immediately.

"Yes, teacher! Schrödinger's theory says that we cannot see the state of things before we confirm the outcome of the event. In other words, the matter itself might be in two alternate forms with equal probability if we are not able to observe it to confirm our assumptions. However, an Esper's Personal Reality allows us to rewrite the outcome by letting micro space influence macro world." Fukiyose answered without hesitation.

Tsukuyomi beamed at the girl happily.

"That's right. Thank you, Fukiyose-chan." The teacher said. "Personal Reality allows an Esper to turn impossible into possible by overruling the world's laws. One of phenomena brought to the surrounding world is an AIM-field emitted by each Esper. With one exception over there."

Komoe-sensei turned to Touma. He cringed, knowing the results of System Scan, which was a series of consecutive tests performed by some specialists to gauge the potential of students. It was said that he was an absolute Level 0, being unable to emit even the slightest AIM-field.

AIM stood for 'An Involuntary Movement'. It was some kind of energy brought to the world by subconscious reactions of Esper's mind to the external world. The more an Esper's perception of the world was distorted, the more powerful did he become. It was not a law of that world but it was like a rule of a thumb.

"Eh, but doesn't Schrödinger's theory contradict the theory behind Espers?" Kamijou asked to divert attention of the whole class.

"No, it simply compliments it." Komoe-sensei smiled knowingly and continued her lecture, starting to draw some diagrams. One circle represented Espers and their Personal Realities while the other one stood for the surrounding world and its laws. The last and the third circle was for micro world with its own laws.

Komoe-sensei drew arrows from Espers to micro world, and from there to external world. After that she closed the cycle by ending it on an arrow leading from external world to Espers.

"That's how our theory works. External world influences the Esper's mind. Personal Reality changes the mechanics behind micro world's rules which allows an Esper to influence external world." Komoe-sensei explained. "I'll omit the comparison to Schrödinger's theory because it's basically the same thing with altered parts."

"Komoe-sensei." Touma asked again. "I have a question."

"Yes, what is it, Kamijou-chan?" The pink-haired teacher tilted her head.

"What if we use the analogy with heat engines and refrigerators? What if we reverse the cycle?" Touma asked.

"That's… a difficult question, teacher can't answer it right away." Komoe-sensei replied with a confused look. "I think, it would result in a Level 2 making small things explode while some other galaxies turn into nothing."

Since Komoe-sensei was so engrossed into answering a difficult question, her speech became simpler.

"That's terrifying if you think about it." Touma shuddered and decided to keep his mouth shut. With his luck he would surely meet an Esper like that. Touma did not want his Universe to collapse, it was fine as it was.

Komoe-sensei started drawing a new diagram which represented what she said before.

Touma heaved a sigh.

He just magnificently made his classmates sit down for another two hours.

And he knew that he would have to pay for that.

"What misfortune."

**Part 3.**

Kanzaki sat on a small sofa with pleasant texture. If she were to believe what she was told, the sofa automatically scanned the nerve signals from the moment her body touched it and restructured itself to match a guest's preferences. And Kanzaki was inclined to believe these words.

The sofa was comfortable. Hard enough to not let her body sink into it, while being soft to let her tense body relax.

Simplistic interior also soothed her nerves. It was not pleasant to be in a city full of her enemies but soft light, some bamboos in the corners of the room and a bare minimum of furniture let her digest that. She liked that room presented to her by Academy City's General Superintendant but it was hard to fight her emotions.

She wanted to run.

She wanted to cry.

She wanted to scream about being powerless!

Kanzaki Kaori was a special Magician. While her partner Stiyl Magnus was a powerful Magician on his own, she was blessed right from the birth. Her body structure resembled that of the Son of the God which gave her superhuman strength, reflexes and speed. She was a Saint, one of less than twenty unique people in the world.

There was a basic principle behind magic. It was a gift to those who did not have talent. Humans always tried to make up for their weaknesses from ancient times so they turned even magic and religion into their tools.

However, that principle disregarded these special existences, like Saints, allowing them use magic.

Even the weakest spell, used by a Saint, was turned into a high-class attack.

Yet, that did not change the fact that Kanzaki Kaori was unable to save her friends.

"Damn it." The girl gritted her teeth.

She needed to keep her cool. Kanzaki would be unable to pursue Index with her thoughts thrown in disarray.

"Ha… Why did it turn like that? Index?" The girl asked the empty air and closed her eyes.

Tonight she would start her pursuit anew.

**Part 4.**

Once Komoe-sensei decided that she would deal with the question later, after looking for some new information, the classes went on as usual.

"The other phenomenon brought into this world by Personal Realities is AIM Burst."

"Isn't that an unconfirmed theory?" Fukiyose asked.

Komoe-sensei smiled.

"Yes, but we just had a precedent of discussing such theories."

Fukiyose nodded her head in understanding.

"AIM Burst is a phenomenon that happens once various AIM fields overlap and are destabilized via some sort of interference. The mechanics behind it are unknown since researchers still do not understand completely what AIM field itself is." Komoe-sensei sighed. "That's enough for unconfirmed theories, though. Fukiyose-chan, what was the reason for Tsuchimikado-chan's absence again? He needs these supplementary lessons too."

"Aogami…?" Fukiyose turned to the blue-haired boy.

Aogami Pierce shrugged his shoulders.

"He's ill?"

"Ill? With his ability?" Fukiyose asked, amazed by a blatant lie.

Aogami flashed a crescent-like smile.

"Hey, hey. It's not like his ability can deal with fever and other symptoms." He spoke. "Besides, isn't he always like this?"

"Yeah…"

"That's true…"

"Everyone in Delta Force is like that."

"Hey! Don't lump me with these two!" Touma cried out unbelievingly.

"Says the man who skipped every second day before Summer holidays."

"Besides, no one said that you were in Delta Force, right?"

"Actually… It goes without saying."

"Even Aogami didn't skip that many classes, huh?"

"It's a wonder."

"Totally so."

"Did I just hear world crumbling?"

"Hey!"

"Guys! Don't get sidetracked again!" Fukiyose stood up.

The silence once again reigned in the classroom.

Delta Force which was mentioned before was a trio of reckless boys who always got into troubles. They were Tsuchimikado Motoharu, who was missing today, Aogami Pierce and Kamijou Touma. Touma always protested against being written off as a member of Delta Force but he always hang out with Tsuchimikado and Aogami, so his objections were overruled.

Komoe-sensei sighed. It seemed the day would be as troublesome as ever.

**Part 5.**

The supplementary classes ended after three more hours of heated discussions. Whenever situation stated to go out of control, Komoe-sensei smiled cutely and mentioned some challenges like Columbus's Egg or See through lesson. Since they were difficult even for Level 3's, Touma and his classmates would immediately keep silence once the challenges were brought up.

It was best not to know about them or go through them.

Touma was wearily walking down the street without thinking. He was tired, and he did not want to remember about the pile of homework he would need to do eventually.

He started humming some tune in order to lighten his mood but he did not even notice it.

Touma looked at the blue sky. The Sun was still at its zenith so it poured its light without any mercy for pitiful souls of citizens. There was not a single cloud there, so he could not expect rain any time soon. Tree Diagram did not predict it either.

"…Hey. Don't ignore me, you idiot! Stop!"

Alas, air conditioning system in his room was not working either. Touma was sure that it would not be fixed until next week since his dorm was on low priority list. There was no meaning in going on sales either since he always bought food for a week, at the very least, and he could not keep them for such a long time now.

"Hey!"

"Oh?" Touma absent-mindedly turned around and saw a furious middle school girl. "Ah, that's just you making a ruckus, Biri Biri?"

"Just? Ruckus? Biri Biri again?" Railgun girl stomped furiously. Bluish-white sparks flew off her hair, and passers-by started taking a surprised look at their phones. Touma hastily brought his right arm to his phone to keep it from harm.

"C'mon, don't get angry. You never gave me your name, remember?"

"And you never asked! I am Misaka Mikoto, remember it!" The girl calmed down a bit, catching his interest.

"Say, wasn't it you who always attacked me without warning since the moment I saved you from these delinquents a month ago?" Touma asked.

Misaka looked confused for a moment, but then she returned to her aggressive manner.

"I never needed your help! Hey, haven't you seen my school uniform? I am from damn Tokiwadai Middle School! It's a given that Tokiwadai students are at least Level 3's!"

"I've seen a damsel in distress, that's all." Touma shrugged his shoulders before bringing up his right arm to shield himself from a lightning.

"Who is damsel in distress? Stop making light of me!"

_Uh-oh, it seems that I stepped on the landmine. It's good that I did not mention flat chest of the girl yet_, decided Touma.

And then his gaze fell on a cylindrical robot nearby which started giving off ominous-looking smoke.

"Oh, damn it. We need to… run!" Touma cried, grabbing the hand of the confused girl once a siren started ringing.

"Wait-!"

"What misfortune!"

**Part 6. **

"So that's who that kid is." Stiyl Magnus murmured, standing in one of the back-alleys.

Once he was freed from that Windowless Building by the frowning messenger, he immediately started looking for a student on a photo card given to him. His search was fruitless unless a while ago when he caught a sight of a staggering high school student. Stiyl observed his actions and almost decided to attack him on his own when that strange girl came.

"That's interesting." The Magician said, producing a box of cigarettes out of his robe. Picking one of cigarettes, he lit it with a flick of his fingers and let out a sigh.

"I need to test his powers properly. I think that I understand what Aleister meant by saying he was a natural enemy of Magicians, though."

Stiyl smirked and hid the box inside the robe.

That city was not as boring as he had thought initially.

**Part 7.**

However, Stiyl Magnus was not the only one who watched the situation from shadows of back-alleys.

There was a middle school girl in simple, yet good-looking sailor uniform. Her dark hair was short and her eyes had an unnatural glint in them. Looking closely, one might find golden stars in her brown irises.

"It's not good-ability, my dear." The girl mused with a deep voice. "You always leave me out of picture-ability."

The girl shook her head and brought her hand to her lips. She frowned and took a look at her phone. It was dead.

"Judging by the position-ability of the Sun… It seems that this girl needs to go back."

With that, the girl went out on the main street and walked away.

**Part 8.**

"Huff-huff… It's always like that… Biri Biri, control yourself!" Touma said tiredly with his hands on his knees. He looked at the girl who stood beside him in the same position.

"Whose fault… huff-huff… do you think it is?" Misaka's face was red from heat and crazy run with Touma.

"Yours." Touma deadpanned.

Misaka decided to save her breathe, ignoring his words.

Gradually, she straightened her body and let out a sigh. She shook her head and sweat glistened under the Sun rays. Touma was somehow captivated by the sight but he remained himself that it was just Biri Biri once he was met with a hard gaze of the middle school girl.

"Still thinking about challenging me?" He asked leaning on the wall behind him.

Misaka smiled daringly and stretched out her hand in Touma's direction.

"But of course. Where would I find such a worthy opponent to level up?"

The sparks flew out but Touma remained stoic.

"Hey, it's cool and all, but I never went hard on you." He spoke calmly.

Misaka became stone-footed, her face paling rapidly and her gaze wavering. Touma saw how his words were absorbed by one of the walking monsters of Academy City who could destroy a whole army single-handedly. Her brain was capable of performing complex calculations so understanding the meaning behind his simple words was a piece of cake for her.

Touma smiled grimly and slowly walked to Misaka. She stepped back in fear, looking at him with teary eyes. His each step was like a death count to her.

And once that death count reached zero…

She closed her eyes.

"Hey, chill out."

Touma patted her on shoulder and smiled reassuringly to trembling Misaka who slowly opened her eyes.

"It's not like I'll go all out on little girls."

Misaka could only muster some strength to fire a little lightning in Touma's direction but he simply waved it off.

"Good night, Misaka-san." Kamijou walked past her, ignoring the fact that she became stone-footed for a completely different reason.

**Part 9.**

Once Kamijou Touma reached his room, he hardly could stop himself from falling down on the floor from exhaustion. The only thing that kept him from such an experience was the fact that he left his mattress drying on the balcony.

He heaved a sigh and started cleaning up the mess he left before going to school. He picked up light novels and thick volumes of manga and put them on shelves which threatened to break under the sheer weight of these books. Then he put his clothes into a basket and left it near washing machine in a bathroom. He was too tired to wash them with his own hands.

After that, he threw the spoilt food into a bin and that was it. Now, he only needed to take his mattress from balcony and go to bed.

Kamijou walked past his small table and opened the door to the balcony. What greeted him was a note left on the mattress. It was a wonder why it did not fly away since it was not pinned.

Kamijou gingerly took the note and looked at it.

_'To Kamijou Touma,_

_I have seen your little brawl with that middle school girl, and I think it is not enough to measure your power. Go to the park near your dorm tonight at two PM and prepare yourself._

_P.S. If you ignore the note, I'll burn your room down.'_

Kamijou Touma looked at the sky tearfully.

However, he could not plead to the skies for the note ignited by itself. Touma touched paper with just fingers of his right hand in panic, and the fire died down.

"What misfortune!"

**Part 10.**

The night fell.

The silver-haired nun was running on the dark streets of Academy City. She had no idea where she currently was.

However, she remembered that she was here before.

It seemed she was in School District 10.

The buildings here were worn down and looked old for such an urban scenery. The asphalt was littered and it was hard not to step on empty cans. The area looked dangerous for the young girl but she did not mind.

In fact, it was easier to hide here. There were more back-alleys in School District 10 than in School District 7 so it looked like a dark maze.

There were many broken and rusted cars. The windows in buildings did not exist anymore so it was possible to hide there. Not that it mattered for the girl since she knew that her clothes were giving out her location to Magicians.

She looked around and frowned.

Her feet stopped moving.

She heard some voices nearby and it did not sound like it was a pleasant view.

In fact, she wanted to run away from the back-alley she currently was in, so strong was her fear.

She did not want to bring her misfortune to others either.

However, she could not move.

She heard a girl's voice full of pain and a boy's maniacal voice.

The nun could not ignore it.

For she was a servant of the merciful One.

**Between the lines 1.**

There was a lonely girl in a dark room.

There was no light.

There was no sound.

There was no blood.

The girl found it more comforting than any other place she was in.

"I won't… kill-"

She muttered the same words countless times.

She did not saw anything here.

However, a picture of a field covered by pure white ash did not leave her head.

"I won't kill… anymore."

She did not know for how long she had been here.

Sometimes she was brought to the light.

She heard cries of people.

_She did not see them._

She was experimented on.

_She did not feel it._

Those who opened the door did not utter a word. However, she grateful to them for that. They were hiding her in a place where she could not kill.

They did not feel sorry for a sinful killer.

It was some kind of mercy for her.

However, one day the silence in her room was broken by some voice.

"How about a deal, Dark Blood?"

* * *

And here we go again. I apologize for some mistakes in the first edition of the prologue like a mistake in Aisa's title.

Also, did I introduce too many characters for just a prologue and a first chapter?

I think, everyone knows whose painful cries Index heard. I would not delve into Sisters' Arc deeply for now, but some foreshadowing is in order.

Also, I changed some details of canonical events in the first volume like the stuff Komoe-sensei said but bear with it. I needed some section for infodump and Komoe's lessons were ideal for that.

With that out of the way, I thank you, dear readers, for following my fic. Till the next time!


	3. Chapter 2

**A/N: Hello again. I'd like to express my gratitude for reviews. **

**Let's start from answering some questions. A verbal tic of the girl who appeared in the previous chapter is to add -ability in her sentences. So, you can simply omit '-ability' in order to read her lines. As such, I did not make a mistake in her lines.**

**And yes, I know about M-rating. However, I am pretty sure that there will be plenty of violence in later chapters.**

**Moving on, let me introduce the chapter with most action in it for the first arc. Enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter 2. Two sides of the city. Magic_and_Science.**

**Part 1.**

Kanzaki Kaori was running on night streets of Academy City.

There was not even a hint of sweat on her stoic face despite her hot run at speed impossible for a human being. Her eyes remained fixed on the street, while the darkness was hiding everything under its guise. It was not a problem for her to pierce the night with her outstanding eyesight. Moreover, she did not rely only on her sight. At such speed, it was impossible.

Kanzaki made up for her lacking eyesight with her other senses. She could feel even slightest changes in night air, and her ears could pick up all sounds of the sleeping city. A heavy stench of rotting food and feces was strong enough to knock out a man, who was not used to living in such places. As such, it was impossible for a superhuman like Kanzaki Kaori not to smell it. In fact, it made her want to throw up. But she endured.

_I have been through worse._

Kanzaki's expression grew grim. She remembered what kind of life she led. A sheltered lady in an enclosed society. It was impossible for her to interact with representatives of the other world with a solid wall made from her subordinates. However, her world was invaded over and over again. And, of course, it led to uncountable losses.

_It's not time to think about it._

Kanzaki shook her head hard. Even when her head was filled with all sorts of thoughts, her pace did not change. Like a skilled martial artist, she let her body lead her, relying on her perfect reflexes and a distant presence of her target to cut through the city.

_Huh? _

However, there was a change that made her footing falter. She caught herself in less time than a normal human needed to blink, though.

_It split? It's impossible._

The presence doubled. Kanzaki frowned and lost herself in thoughts.

_Both targets are moving in opposite directions. They still are not far from each other, so I should be able to continue pursuit even if I fail at picking my initial target. What to choose…?_

One presence was smaller than other, so it made sense that the bigger one was her target. However, Kanzaki knew that the girl in question was not as stupid as to let herself be caught because of such a mistake. As such, it was possible that the bigger one was just made for misleading pursuers.

Nevertheless, it was uncertain if the girl could pull off something like that.

_But it's Index. She was able to infiltrate Academy City and hide from us, relying only on her intellect. What if…?_

Kanzaki sighed slightly.

_I know, I'm probably mistaken. But that's what you want, right?_

She finally made her decision.

**Part 2.**

Kamijou Touma left his dorm through the balcony.

It was probably possible to leave at night without even disturbing a dorm manager, since Touma had rarely seen them before, but he decided that it was not worth the risk. Besides, he used to climb the walls in order to get to his room after sleepless night after he was chased by some strange people, so he was sure that he would be able to safely return home. Or, rather, his small room.

Kamijou saw that the lights in his neighbors' rooms were off, so he knew that he would not bring much attention to himself. It was strange that Tsuchimikado was not still awake but Touma decided it did not matter much. He could always ask Motoharu himself.

Once his feet touched the cold ground, Kamijou let out a small breath and turned his back to the wall. The last check of his phone's screen showed that it was still dead. Kamijou silently damned himself for using it to shield from Biri Biri's lightning attack. He could not call for help if he needed it.

"How come I always get in troubles so unprepared? It's not like I'm an airheaded superhero from comics, right? And even they know when to make needed preparations." Kamijou sighed and crossed the road. He had no idea that just a day before a silver-haired nun was running down the same road just on rooftops. And he definitely did not know that if the fate was a bit more cruel, his life would be changed a lot more than he could imagine even in wildest dreams.

Once he made sure that he would not be seen from any window of his dorm, Kamijou started to run. It was just a fifteen-minute walk from his dorm to his destination, but he felt a burning desire to get done with his trouble quicker if he could help it.

Kamijou was a bit afraid. He did not understand what the mysterious sender of the letter meant by his words, and it was dark. The darkness was dangerous for normal humans, and the boy seriously thought that was but a normal human.

However, he did not think about what normal humans would do, if they were in his boots. He did not even call Anti-Skill, the organization meant to deal with internal problems of Academy City. Nor did he inform Judgement, the organization made of students who pursued the same ideals as he did. He did not even bother to call Komoe-sensei in case things would go south.

Was it the youth that got in his head?

Anyways, Kamijou did not realize that he could be called 'an airheaded hero from comics'.

Finally, his eyes grew accustomed to the darkness of night, and he was able to see trees which made the entrance of the park. Of course, it was surrounded by fences but he was not surprised to see that huge gates were open. Holding his breath, Kamijou stepped into the park's territory.

He felt how the air changed.

It was like he found himself in another world. Kamijou could not see any change in the surroundings, but it was obvious for him that something was wrong with this place.

For example, he could feel a high-class killing intent coming from the tall figure standing in the centre of the park. It was standing beside a fountain which was not working at night.

The park was intended to look like a classical crossroad made of four main roads leading to a fountain. There were some small paths in the woods but they were made later when it became clear that some people could be lost even there. With the fountain as their centre, the trees made a perfect circle with a fifteen-meter radius.

Kamijou frowned. There was enough space to set up all kinds of traps in the woods, and he knew that there was even a small artificial river in the southern part of the park. If he were to fight an Esper with a specific ability to control water or hydrogen, he would be screwed the moment he decided to hide there.

Besides, he was not sure in his ability to fight in the woods. With twigs and root in his way, hidden by darkness, it was nigh impossible to be able to effectively fight in close quarters.

However, when he was not hidden by trees, he was completely open to long-distance attacks. Kamijou was an able fighter, indeed, but even he could be bested by a quick-witted Esper with a suiting ability.

_What am I thinking about?_ Kamijou bit his lip hard to get rid of thoughts that penetrated his mental barriers. He needed to learn about that figure's intentions before getting ready to fight.

"What are you waiting for, Kamijou Touma?" A clear male voice rang out.

Kamijou froze on his place, unable to think properly. He made sure to walk as quietly as he could, and he was still at the distance where his footsteps should not be heard. How did that person do it?

"Who are you?" Kamijou let out a trembling voice.

"I am a Magician." The figure turned around to face him.

Kamijou squinted his eyes, not failing to notice short red hair of the 'Magician'. The man was clad in a black robe which made his image even more dark and mysterious.

However, Kamijou was not impressed.

"C'mon, you're in the country where cosplay is norm. Did you think that your costume would be enough to get to the heart of a tough hardcore gamer with an entire life of endless practice?" Kamijou sighed. "Your clothes are probably so hot that it's hard to move on Summer. Also, it restricts your movements, and it's probably heavy like hell. Work on your image better, you amateur!"

The cold expression on the man's face broke into an evil grin.

"Huh. I see, you've got no taste at all. Well, I assume, it was clear from your poor choice of clothes."

"Shut up, you damn fake! Do you know how hard it is to live with my allowance? I barely can spend money on my textbooks and other stuff to study! Show some respect to hard-working high school students with virtually no money at all!" Kamijou cried, ignoring the vicious scowl on the man's face.

"Enough of this farce."

The self-styled Magician pulled a card out of his sleeve and threw it on the ground.

"I prepared about twelve spells to test your speed, agility, power, reflexes, thinking in hard situations and intuition. However, I'm going to discard of that shit. I don't need such a whiny partner. Why don't you go to Purgatory?"

The moment the card fell on the ground…

…A burning sword appeared in the man's hand.

"So you weren't joking at all, huh?" Kamijou shielded his eyes with his left hand and let his body to get into fighting stance. He slightly bent his legs and his back to be ready to react to surprise attacks.

There was only one thought spinning in his head as he saw the man running towards him.

_I see. So he's totally a chuuni with power._

**Part 3.**

School District 10 was one of the most dangerous districts of Academy City.

It was poorly managed with its battered buildings hidden by magnificence of other parts of the city. Most of its inhabitants were delinquents who found out that there could be made perfect hideouts since Anti-Skill rarely bothered to look for them here. And so, it was divided by various bands of delinquents.

The back-alleys here were ruled by the most powerful individuals who managed to survive with the harsh of the street imposed on them. As such, it was undeniably nostalgic for the most powerful Esper of Academy City to return back on these back-alleys where he spent his youth.

"There's still this stench of blood, huh? Some things remain unchanged." A white-haired teenager with scarlet red eyes grinned widely at the girl who stood in front of him. Her features were hidden by the darkness and big military goggles. It was clear that she had brown chestnut-colored hair and she was young. What was strange though? She wore Tokiwadai uniform.

And her words were shocking no less than her school uniform.

"Misaka is unable to understand the meaning behind the target's words, Misaka says while Misaka looks intently at you."

"Huh? Still clinging to 'the target'? It's childish. You should be always ready to spell the name of your opponent." The teenager smiled, his smile splitting his face in two. "You should be proud, after all. Your opponent is the strongest in this shitty city, Accelerator."

The teenager's features were hard to describe. It was possible to take them for a boy, as well as a girl. Accelerator, though, called himself a male.

He wore a black t-shirt with a spider web-like pattern on it and light-blue jeans. His white sneakers were not suited for combat but Accelerator did not care.

Accelerator frowned, looking at the girl's hands.

"No weapon this time?" He asked and sighed, looking disheartened. "It would be boring, huh? What about making some rules to make it fun?"

"Misaka doesn't understand the meaning of your words, Misaka repeats with a confused look." Despite her words, the girl's expression never changed. Accelerator could not confirm it because of goggles, though. "The experiment will end once Misaka is dead so it is meaningless to make rules."

"You're boring. Well, I think…" Accelerator flashed a playful grin of a predator. "I'll let you off the hook if you connect one attack."

"Misaka thinks that it is a cruel condition because the target has never been hit over the course of 8965 previous experiments, Misaka voices her opinion."

Accelerator cocked his head waiting for the girl's next words.

"The local time now is 03.59 AM. There are 15 seconds left before the start of the experiment." The girl slightly bent her legs and changed her stance. It was a fighting stance of a soldier, which did not fit her. "Misaka will now confirm the target's intention to start the experiment-"

"There's no need for that." Accelerator with a maniacal laughter lightly lift his right leg and slowly touched the ground with the foot. Once he did it, his whole body flew towards the girl.

The trajectory of his flight was an unnatural one. Accelerator did not bother with its form choosing the easiest one, the straight line.

And it was easily predictable.

The girl jumped to the side, releasing a bluish-white lightning in the process. Her attack intercepted her opponent, and…

It blew off magnificently, giving off bright sparks, but Accelerator continued his flight.

The wild grin on his face grew even more wide, and he broke his flight by unnaturally turning in the mid-air and touching a wall on his left with his legs. It looked like he broke physics' rules. With the vector of his movement changed without any loss in momentum, Accelerator closed the gap between him and the girl in but a moment.

The girl ducked desperately under his body and attacked him with electricity again. This time around she created a strong electromagnetic field by using her whole body as an isolator and slightly changing the characteristics of her surroundings. The mechanics behind her powerful attack were the only thing that helped her to survive a violent outcome of Accelerator's comeback.

Bluish-white sparks could not even touch the #1's body, and they were completely repelled. What was more, the electric current was redirected forcibly at the girl herself. Thanks to the way she attacked, she sustained only a light damage with a slight cry of pain, and was able to move freely to escape the clutch of Accelerator's hand.

"That was clever, girl! Show me more!" Accelerator cried out with a distinct bloodlust in joyous voice. He turned in the mid-air again, ending his flight and managing to stand somehow on the wall. Seeing that the girl just watched his movements, he sighed. "Now, that's boring."

"Misaka succeeded in moving the target to the intended place." The girl's lips moved slightly. She raised her hand slightly and tugged on something invisible.

Accelerator looked up and saw an air conditioning unit falling on him. His grin faded away with an expression of boredom surfacing on his face.

"It's useless."

The moment air conditioning unit landed on Accelerator's back, it exploded enveloping him in bright flames.

The girl caught her breath and steadied her footing. She filled that air conditioning unit with highly flammable fluids made specifically for this fight. The girl had no idea what it was made of, but its effect was undeniable. It would rob the target of oxygen, and the explosion with resulting heat should kill him.

However…

It was not enough.

Accelerator's body shot from the smoke. The girl's reaction was a fraction of second later than needed, and the boy's palm sent her flying into the wall. She heard an unpleasant creaking sound of her bones and coughed the blood. Her injuries were not life-threatening but she was not able to move as quickly as she used to. It was the end for her.

"I admit, it was a good move. However, your opponent is me. Did you think that it would be enough to kill me?" Accelerator mocked her. The girl did not answer him.

Her goggles flew off her face while she was flying towards the wall, so now her identity was clear. Her face and her physics was completely identical to that of Misaka Mikoto.

The girl touched the back of her head. It seemed that it was bleeding.

Her sense of balance was affected by the sheer impact of her back meeting the wall, so it was useless to try and stand up. Besides, she did not have time.

Accelerator made a step after step, smiling brightly. His eyes were fixed solely on the girl's face, and it was like he wanted to devour her whole.

He looked like a predator in the wild before making a final leap at its pry.

He looked like an angel of death with its wings spread fully.

He looked completely delighted.

However, his expression grew contorted somewhat for a moment.

And the girl did not overlook that opening and let out her last attack.

The lightning flew towards Accelerator…

And his face suddenly turned into a grimace of pain and shock.

**Part 4. **

Stiyl Magnus kicked off the ground with his fire sword lagging behind. It felt weightless in his hand, and he prepared some counter-measures just in case, but Magician tried to level it properly.

Kamijou Touma's gaze was fixed only on Stiyl's weapon, and it was easy to see how his body tensed. For some reason, the Esper did not even try to move from his position. Instead, he shifted his center of gravity even lower.

Stiyl reached a place from which he could strike the boy, and he moved his arm. The long fire sword swished at Kamijou's head.

There was a sound of glass breaking.

"You're not proficient in CQC, are you?" The boy's right hand shot out and grabbed Stiyl's wrist. The long fire sword vanished completely leaving in its place only scalding heat.

"Oh?" Stiyl smirked, not trying to move. The boy's grip was surprisingly tight.

"There was a slight lag in your movements. It looked like you tried too hard to keep your fire sword in check." Kamijou explained lazily. "I've got no idea what you're thinking about, but give up. It's hard to fight me in CQC for a long-range fighter, and I've got your Personal Reality sealed."

"Personal Reality? What the hell is that?" Stiyl frowned.

The boy still thought that Stiyl was just an Esper, pretending to be a Magician. That much was clear.

His words about a seal made sense, because Stiyl could not refine his life energy into magical energy no matter how hard he tried. It made him wonder what was the exact nature of the boy's power.

"Huh?" Kamijou raised his an eyebrow. And then he cringed in pain.

Stiyl kicked him in the shin and freed his wrist. Then he kicked the ground and jumped from Kamijou who tried to punch him in the gut with his left hand.

"Hey… Your clothes…" Kamijou's confused look made Stiyl smirk.

"Is it not enough to prove my point? Well then… Let me show you something on the entire new level." Stiyl did not think that using his ace in the sleeve would be cheating. The power in the boy's right hand was a cheat itself.

When he thought about it, Stiyl could not prove the existence of magic with his usual attacks since it was still possible for an Esper. It meant that he needed something powerful. Something that would not give in to the boy's right hand.

"_M_ **T** _W_ **O** _T_ **F** _F_ **T** _O_. (O one of the five great elements that give a shape to this world.) **I** _I_ **G** _O_ **I** _I_ **O** _F_. (The great flame of the origin.)" The speed at which Stiyl chanted was incredible. He made use of the universal system made in Middle Age, which allowed him to shorten the time needed for chanting. His breathing techniques made his mind clear and tranquil, while his blood pressure raised rapidly. "**I** _I_ **B** _O_ **L** _A_ **I** _I_ **A** _O_ **E**. (It is a divine light that blesses a one's life, and it is a divine light that punishes a sinner.) _I_ **_I_ **_M_ **_H_ **_A_** I **_I_ **B** _O_ **D**. (Its calm blessings and cold misfortune drive away the darkness.) _I_ **I** _N_ **F** _I_ **I** _M_ **S**. (The name is fire, the role is the sword.)"

It seemed the boy felt that something was amiss, and he rushed forward. Sadly, it was too late.

"_I_ **C** _R_ **M** _M_ **B** _G_ **P**! (I hereby summon thee for thou to become the power that eats away one's body!)"

In a burning flash, the order was overruled by an overwhelming presence of a fire giant. Its height was easily three meters, and its width was more than two meters. The burning shape of the fire giant intercepted the boy who charged at him.

The right hand of the boy who could kill illusions blocked the cross-like stake that appeared in the hands of the fire giant.

"What? It's _impossible_!"

Stiyl heard the boy's cry of surprise. There was no pain in his voice, just a little bit of strain. It seemed that his right hand was able to handle some aftereffects of the attack just fine in case it was touching the source of it directly.

_That's something to remember_, Stiyl thought with a smirk.

"So. Is it something that Espers are able to do?" Magician asked.

"**No.**" The boy's voice was clear. Stiyl watched as the giant's hands were thrown away, and its form shook. "It's not like I can believe in magic instantly just because of this autonomous creature-"

The giant's form trembled. The heat became less threatening to surroundings, and it shrank ever so slightly.

_What happened?_ Stiyl thought.

"-But I don't think that any of Pyrokinesists is able to do something like that. And no one of them is able to use their power via some strange cards." The boy's voice struck Stiyl more than any of his attempts to punch Magician.

"You've seen through it. You pass." Stiyl let out a breath tiredly and shut down the flow of magical energy in his body forcibly. It was exhausting to fuel the fire giant called Innocentius, whose very name held the meaning of sure death for sinners.

And so, Stiyl did not expect a punch flying towards his face.

"No one in his right mind tries to kill his new-to-be partner!"

**Part 5.**

Kanzaki Kaori stood in one of the back-alleys of School District 10.

In the end, she decided to pursue the smaller presence which was revealed to be a frightened kitten with the white hood on its body. Its fur made it clear that it was a small calico cat.

"I did make a mistake, huh?" The girl murmured and took the hood with her. She tried to touch the kitten, but it ran away from her, meowing.

Kanzaki straightened her body and turned around.

It was time to pursue her true target.

**Part 6.**

Accelerator was bewildered.

His hand twitched from the electric current running through his body but he forced it out. With his power dealing with such an attack was not a problem.

However, the problem lay in the reason why he was hit when his ability should have simply reflected the lightning.

The nature of Accelerator's ability lay in vector control. It meant that as long as something had a vector he could control and redirect it. In other words, he could not be hit by anything since his redirection worked passively.

Then what made him vulnerable to the weak lightning?

Just a moment before Accelerator made an unpleasant expression which caused the girl to attack him, he felt a strange pressure in his chest. It was like something was warping his lungs and his sense of balance was affected by the strange phenomenon.

Accelerator knew that it was not an Esper's doing. He fought almost every type of Esper in the city, leaving behind only a bloody mess of a human. And no one was able to leave even a scratch on him, and no one was able to cause him any troubles.

Except for a silver-haired girl in a pristine white nun's habit with a sophisticated pattern on it. Just one glance at her clothes made Accelerator's head hurt badly forcing him to look away.

He felt it was dangerous to look at the nun's habit.

It seemed that the pattern held some kind of a code. It was not a problem for Accelerator to decipher it, but he decided that it would not be worth his efforts.

"Stop right there, you pitiful lamb who got lost in the darkness."

The girl's words pierced Accelerator's heart. He could not move nor could he shut her up like he usually did. He felt a divine light residing in the heart of the silver-haired Sister.

_What a joke. A real Sister, and we've got a military clone with a codename Sister,_ Accelerator thought.

"I have no power to stop you. However, I beg of you." Sister continued in her melodic voice.

_What? There is no need to beg a cold-hearted bastard like me._

"Let her go. It is a strong's right, and I feel that you are strong. You just need to touch what sleeps deep inside of you, and you'll be able to do it." Sister continued to persuade him.

Accelerator gritted his teeth.

_Why? Why does she talk to me like I am a human? I am a goddamn monster. I am a murderer. _

His bitter thoughts tore at his own heart.

"I'm sure that you are a-"

"No. More." Accelerator growled, unable to take it anymore. He charged at the girl and tried to push her with his palm. Normally, it would be enough to send a human flying.

However, she held her ground.

Her pristine white habit glowed slightly, and the golden pattern changed ever so slightly, absorbing the shock completely. It was like his attack never existed.

"What?" Accelerator knew that there was nothing in the world that could stop his attack like that. Nothing.

And yet, the girl stood unperturbed by his attack. Her clear green eyes looked at him strongly, yet gently, reproachfully, yet kindly. It was like she could accept him as he was, a cold-blooded murderer, an unstoppable monster, a walking machine, and a kind-

Accelerator interrupted his thoughts with a huff, and looked away from Sister.

"Hey, you." His bitter voice reached the ears of the girl who stood behind him. "The experiment is over. I am a man of my word."

"But Tree Diagram-"

"It's just a machine. It predicted that you would die at the fourth turn, right? It was mistaken, and you're alive. That's all." Accelerator spoke quietly, his head hung. "Return to your damn laboratory and be proud. You are the first, after all."

The girl picked up her broken goggles silently, and holding her sides with her hands disappeared in the darkness.

"Happy now?" Accelerator growled, finally looking at Sister.

She beamed brightly at him.

Her smile reminded him of painful memories of his past.

"Say, what's your name, mister?" She asked.

"Huh?" Accelerator frowned.

"I want to know your name, mister." Sister repeated her question.

"…You first."

"Ah, right." Sister fidgeted a little, embarrassed. "I am Index. Index Librorum Prohibitorum."

"Huh? Why do you have a name with such a meaning?" Accelerator asked. "Ah, no matter."

He scratched his head. He had long decided not to use his name anymore.

However, the light in Index's eyes made him reconsider his decision. And as his mouth opened…

An another change occurred.

**Part 7.**

Another woman appeared on the scene.

Her clothes were even less normal than a nun's habit if it was even possible. Jeans with a torn leg and a t-shirt with a knot right above the woman's midriff.

The woman had a two-meter long katana. Or maybe, it was a nodachi.

And... there was a white hood in her hand.

Accelerator frowned, shielding Index instinctively. Besides, he could see that the girl was trembling ever so slightly. Her hair was uncovered, and the hood looked like a part of her clothes.

_What am I doing?_

"No, mister. Run away, it is not-" She tried to drive him away. She tried to deal with her problem herself.

_What a kind-hearted little hypocrite._

"You butted into my fight. I'm going to do the same with yours." Accelerator shook his head.

"Step away from her." The woman spoke coldly.

"Make me." Accelerator grinned. The girl grabbed his t-shirt but he gently shook her hand away.

"I have no choice then." The woman focused her intent gaze on the teenager and charged at him at supersonic speed.

Accelerator decided to do the same.

They bodies clashed at neck-breaking speed, and the outcome was clear.

The woman was sent flying in the more open space, while Accelerator was stopped in his tracks.

The white hood was now in his hands. He threw it towards Index and looked at the woman who blocked his attack with just her unexpectedly sturdy weapon.

"Interesting. Very interesting. Who are you, missy?" Accelerator laughed cruelly and charged at the woman again.

"You do not need to know my name, beast!" The woman somersaulted in the mid-air and touched the ground for a split second before disappearing.

"Huh? Illusions? And here I was, hoping for some fun!" Accelerator exclaimed, landing on the spot where the woman was a moment ago. Suddenly, his gaze caught a sight of ultra-thin wires closing in on him. A wild grin appeared on his face before an explosion enveloped him.

He kicked the ground hoping for some oxygen because the air around him was scattered by the explosion, but he was met by another web of wires.

"Again?" Accelerator whistled and waved his hand. The web was broken by strong unexpected gusts of wind, and he changed his vectors to fly to the rooftop where the mysterious woman was standing.

"Nanasen." She clicked her tongue and repeated her attack.

Accelerator simply ignored it. The wires touched his body, and they stopped it.

"Huh?" Accelerator was impressed. He redirected the wires, but the woman held them in place with just her brute force. "Aren't we strong?"

He changed the vectors of the wind again, cutting through the wires and sending it towards the woman. She jumped high in the air.

"O the light that shines through the darkness. Let thy sword slice through my enemies!" With a short chant, she unsheathed her sword in just a split second and cut through the air in Accelerator's direction. Her strike turned into a light stream that collided with a teenager's body.

However, the light dissipated in the air.

"It wasn't redirected?" Accelerator muttered under his breath and looked up, landing gently on the rooftop. The woman made a full arc, landing on the other rooftop. Her stance changed, she bent her legs and curtly drew her long sword.

"The fire that burned away thy mother and was split into eight parts. Engulf everything in flames, Kagutsuchi!"

Her slash in a long arc was coupled with an attack from another seven wires.

Burning flames enveloped Accelerator once again.

_That's clever. She cannot touch me nor is she able to cut me with her sword. So, she tries to rob me of air and cloud my mind in order to mess with my concentration. However… _Accelerator frowned at the thought, jumping out of flames unharmed. _Her attacks have different origins. Yet, it does not seem that she is Dual Skill…_

Accelerator raised an eyebrow mid-flight. The strange pressure from before did not disappear even though he made sure to distance himself from Sister.

_Is it another Esper system that interferes with an AIM-field?_ Accelerator wondered, flying towards the woman.

The woman sat on her knee, her sword sheathed, and waved her fingers slightly, changing the construction made from her wires. The wires glinted unnaturally under starlight, and Accelerator's eyes widened when he felt a slight pain in his temples.

_It is a mind control technique? Who is she, a ninja?_ Accelerator breathed out and brought his hand to his head. The pain subsided, leaving him with unpleasant thoughts. It seemed that concentrated AIM-field was able to deal with the unknown technique.

The woman looked at him with a frown on her face.

The teenager smiled like a wild beast.

Her hands were ready to draw the sword.

His hands were ready to take her life.

Yet, the fight was destined to end at this moment.

The woman brought her hand to her ear in surprise.

The teenager heard his phone ringing.

"Withdraw?"

"Stop?"

Their voices overlapped.

The fight had come to an anticlimactic end.

**Part 8.**

"Hey, mister. You still did not tell me your name." Index smiled in relief seeing Accelerator returning to her. The teenager raised an eyebrow in surprise, but he only heaved a sigh.

"Do not bother with it. Just call me Accelerator."

"Okay." Index smiled innocently like a kid. Accelerator squinted his eyes, knowing that he would never be able to flash the same kind of smile.

Besides, it was impossible for him to accept a completely unknown person like Sister in front of him did.

But maybe…

He needed to try?

"Let's go. I drove that woman away, so you'll be safe for the night." Accelerator turned away from Index and started walking away. "I want you to tell me more. About the supernatural abilities that exist outside Academy City."

Index hopped behind him and only smiled in return.

Accelerator sighed, remembering the voice that stopped him from continuing the fight.

_"You touched the forbidden fruit before you were intended to. Stop the fight unless your curiosity kills the innocent ones."_

_"Stop?"_

_"Yes."_

_"And what if I refuse?"_

_"You'll be denied the hope that was given to you by that girl."_

_"You bastard…"_

_"Take care of her for a day. But you are not to get close to her."_

_"Who are you to demand something like that from me?"_

_"I am Academy City. I am General Superintendant. My name is Aleister. Nice to speak with you so soon."_

_He knew my name. As expected of a person with the biggest authority in the city._

Accelerator left the back-alley. He had a lot to learn about the world around him.

**Part 9.**

"What is the meaning of this, Stiyl?"

Kanzaki returned to her room.

She pressed her hand to her ear, using magic to communicate with her partner.

"It's exactly as I was told. You are forbidden to touch that boy. Aleister will make him give up on Index, and the pursuit will continue when I'm done with a mission."

"Why did you agree on that?"

"You ask _me_ that?" Stiyl clicked his tongue. "Calm down. We do not need conflicts with Science Side."

"I know." Kanzaki bit her lip, drawing salty blood. "How are things on your side?"

"The boy's good enough. He's an amateur, though." Stiyl spoke.

"I see." Kanzaki deactivated the magic channel that connected her to her partner.

She needed some time to think.

**Part 10.**

A green-haired man stood in the wide hall of Misawa Cram School.

His face was calm.

"Why did you do it?" A girl's voice reached his ears. "You promised that we would not kill anyone."

"It was not like that." The man answered disinterestedly. He looked at the pool of blood he stood in.

There was a pile of armor on the cold marble floor.

The man could see pieces of meat that made what was once called human through the gaps in the armor. The body did not have skin. No, it was more accurate to say that it was turned inside out making a bizarre, gore picture. A bloodied heart beat steadily, with blood leaking through the veins. The whites of its eyes were turned inside, and it broke the flesh attached to them.

It was enough to make a person throw up.

However, the man's face was calm.

And, despite the fountains of blood, his clothes did not have even a stain of blood on them.

It was undisguised violence of a human who thought what he did was right.

It was indifference of a human who overstepped the boundaries laid by the world.

"We will not kill a vampire. But I never said anything about humans." The man turned to the girl and smiled.

It was a kind smile of a martyr.

It was a cruel smirk of a sinner.

It was just a matter of the way the human was viewed.

And it made the girl in a white-and-red kimono sick. Her long black hair fluttered in the air, and she turned away.

Just a day after she made a deal with that man…

She decided to run away.

**Between the lines 2.**

"Pontiff has returned."

"What would we do?"

"I'm not sure. We need to respect her wishes."

"But-"

"I understand. However, our opinion doesn't matter."

"We were the ones who made our Pontiff run away!"

"Yes. But still… It's her heart that should show her the way."

* * *

**It was a long chapter, wasn't it. I think it's a main turning point where the story's going to change.**

**Accelerator meets Index and Kanzaki. **

**Misaka Imouto manages to survive a fight with Accelerator!**

**And even Stiyl has a different opinion about Kamijou!**

**Who can predict the changes that this chapter's going to bring? There are several points of story that are going to be affected because of a cruel joke of fate.**

**I tried not to copy Stiyl's chants, making some slight changes. Also, FF ate his chants for some reason, so there is a reason for strange formatting. By the way, I figured that Kanzaki showed way too few techniques in original. So, I tried to change that fact.**

**Also, it was a bit uncertain from Stiyl's POV, so I'm going to explain something. He lay cards in the park way before Kamijou came, and Touma just so happened to be at the place where Stiyl's cards were laid. Sorry, if my descriptions were lacking.**

**And yes, Accelerator understand Latin. At least, he can piece things together with his brain and use some knowledge in his head.**

**I initially wanted to have an Itsuwa's cameo, but a chapter was way too intensive even without her. So, sorry, Itsuwa's fans.**

**And you can blame me for not showing Aureolus's fight with the knight. And the story-telling's issues. **

**Thank you for your attention, dear readers. **

**And, as always, I'd leave some questions. Were action-parts lacking? Were you annoyed by the end of Accelerator's second fight? And, how much did you like/dislike Accelerator's thoughts?**

**Until next time! **


	4. Chapter 3

**A/N: Well, that was certainly a long time. Sadly, this long wait is only for quite a small chapter.**

**About Accelerator and Index... You see, I am not comfortable with an idea of pushing together a keeper of grimoires with the strongest Esper, so the answer is a safe no. It's an encounter that will have some meaning later, though.**

**Oh, BTW, I changed a serial number for a certain Sister... I messed that up big time. **

**As for Shiage... He's not relevant enough as of now to throw him in the story. Actually, I do not really see how I can twist his story without making it less awesome than it was. Although, I've got more than enough time to decide what to do with him. There are, at least, eleven more volumes to cover with Sisters' arc (oh, these plot bunnies) and 0930 Incident (damn that Kihara and his totally unrealistic technique) giving me severe headache.**

**I guess, you can call Himegami a central character this time around. Enjoy.**

* * *

**Chapter 3. An usual day. Turmoil_in_the_Cafe.**

**Part 1.**

"Excuse me, mister."

Accelerator and Index were walking down the night road. The boy decided that the night was eventful enough to make him choose the main road instead of narrow back-alleys. Deep in his heart, he was simply concerned for Index's well-being with such a powerful pursuer hot on her tail. On the surface, he let himself think that he simply did not want to see ugly faces of stupid delinquents.

"Yes, what is it?" Accelerator was not, of course, always that formal. However, he could see that the girl was a foreigner, so he decided to be at least polite. He did not need to be aggressive to those who chose to talk to him instead of just rushing to him in order to fight with the strongest Esper in whole Academy City.

"I'm-hungry." Index said apologetically. She looked up with puppy eyes that would make any normal human forget himself in immense cuteness the girl naturally emitted.

"And?"

However, Accelerator was not a normal human. He simply scowled and let out an annoyed sigh.

"Look, it's harmful for young girls like you digest food during the night. Especially, during the sleep." Accelerator explained himself, seeing that Index puffed up her cheeks.

"Especially?" She repeated his words, tilting her head.

Accelerator hung his head, annoyed by Index's slowed thought process.

"What are you going to do in a safe place when no one is going to attack you?"

"To… sleep?" Index replied rather slowly, feeling how exhaustion from sleepless night started getting to her.

Accelerator shrugged his shoulders.

"That's it."

And with that he slightly sped up, allowing Index to see only his slim back.

"I'm hungry." The girl muttered under her breath. She looked at Accelerator and frowned a little. "That lost lamb is quite cruel."

"I can hear you."

**Part 2.**

The shift between the night and early morning was not discernible in a gloomy residence of General Superintendant of Academy City. Countless lights flickered on and off, creating a sophisticated illumination of the room. Yet, lights near an enormous cylinder in the center of the residence never changed.

The owner of the room, Aleister, was smiling. Normally, such an action would cause a number of bubbles to appear in the fluids a living organism was floating in. However, the fluids were completely still at the moment.

It was as if a different set of rules reigned here.

"That encounter exceeds my expectations." Aleister let his gaze fall on holographic screens which appeared in front of his eyes. Strings of text and rows of various pictures were etched in his retina as they disappeared in the darkness of the room and were replaced by complicated diagrams.

Aleister moved his eyes ever so slightly, and screens disappeared. That human who exceeded all possible limits allowed his small smile fade away from the pale face.

"Some plans are not usable anymore. A hundred and twenty one schemes require to be changed and updated with current data. Seventy one more are to be completely remade and backed up by predictions of what could occur in near future." Aleister's voice was recorded, and it alone activated an uncountable number of processes. "The amount of needed research exceeds human's limits. It requires ten years of working with probability field. I request help from Tree Diagram."

"Accessing Tree Diagram. Request accepted. Starting calculating new probabilities with updated data. Calculations complete. Do you want to see the results?" A window with these short lines appeared right in front of Aleister's eyes.

Aleister moved his eyes slightly, and a great number of windows filled his field of vision, rotating around the cylinder. General Superintendant analyzed the results calmly, and a slight smile appeared on his lips again.

"I see. Everything progresses well." Aleister paused. "Kazakiri FUSE project requires help from Imaginary District Five Elements Institution. Change its priority level from Silver to Gold."

With an eerie smile Aleister continued to observe Academy City and the distortion it brought to the world.

**Part 3.**

"You really don't know where Tsuchimikado is? Geez, Kami-yan, he lives just the next door." Aogami complained weakly, hiding from heat behind the desk.

"Yeah. I knocked his door several times, and there was no reaction. At all." Kamijou said tiredly, uselessly fighting the devastating heat.

The morning was as uneventful as ever. A half of students did not even bother to come, sending texts to their friends who were more brave than they. A quarter of poor brave souls sprawled over their desks, refusing to move from their spots, while others were hiding behind their desks, fanning themselves with notebooks. And so, the only two people who could still sit up straight were Kamijou Touma and Fukiyose Seiri. However, even Iron Wall girl was pale as a ghost and was forced to relieve her apparent migraine with several bottles of sport drinks.

Surprisingly, Komoe-sensei was nowhere to be found. The teacher's desk was empty right from the moment when the tiny teacher came into the classroom and quickly fled from awful heat that reigned there.

That was about a half an hour ago, yet by now everyone had their energy sipped away by merciless Sun so no one was able to stand up and go home. Nor did they welcome the thought of bringing back a certain cute pink-haired teacher.

"Hey, Fukiyose." Kamijou muttered weakly.

"What. Is. It?" The person in question did not even bother to turn to him.

"I give." Kamijou let his head meet hard surface of his desk.

Just to raise his head again because of how his desk was heated up.

"Agh! Damn you, Sun!" Kamijou brought his fist to his face and weakly waved it in the air.

One of the girls in the classroom twitched.

"I-I-I-I'm sorry, Akiko-san, I didn't mean you." Kamijou waved his hands, bewildered.

The girl, with her black hair tied into braids, giggled and beamed at him, winking all the while.

All sounds disappeared.

Kamijou blinked, feeling that something was amiss. Then he blinked again.

And then he heaved a sigh and let his face hit the desk hard.

This time around he did not care about the heat.

"Even Kamijou's dull now." Such was the girl's displeased verdict.

**Part 4.**

"Should a runner-up really treat the winner to ice cream?" Kamijou Touma asked Fukiyose, while going down one of the streets of School District 7.

"Such were the rules, Kami-yan. Bear with it." Aogami hopped beside them. He was in extremely good mood for someone who just a minute ago was lying weakly behind the desk.

"Damn it, Aogami. Why are you even here?" Kamijou rolled his eyes. At the very least, Aogami did not try to fake Kansai dialect now.

"A good friend won't leave a comrade when he's about to be broke! A truly good friend will make a comrade feel miserable while it happens." Aogami answered readily.

"Damn pervert."

"Huh?" Aogami frowned slightly.

Kamijou let out a sigh.

"It's because of Akiko, right? You were wiggling your tail for her last week but she rejected you. Must be harsh."

Aogami started emitting killing intent.

Kamijou smirked and brought his fist to the shoulder.

And Fukiyose magnificently smashed their heads together.

"Chill out, you idiots." She hung her head, covering it with her bag.

Kamijou and Aogami bumped their fists together and weakly followed Fukiyose.

"Yeah. She even said, 'I'm going to call the police.' I didn't even do anything!" Aogami complained.

"Huh."

"You don't believe me? You traitor!" Aogami started waving his hands but Kamijou was merciless.

"Whatever. You tried to mess with her skirt, right? Not going into details but making even a slight cut on a skirt just to peep on her panties smells fishy." Fukiyose started trembling at this point but both guys did not notice it.

"I never would do anything like that! It's just your imagination."

"Really?"

"Shut up, you two."Fukiyose's growl made boys hush each other.

The girl brought her free hand to her famous forehead to relieve her migraine. The ice cream was near, and so was the treat. The heat became so unbearable that she wanted to go home and get a change of clothes, after all.

However, there was a little problem.

"Hey, Fukiyose." Aogami spoke up, his lips curving up in a smug smile.

"What now, you beast."

"You don't even call me by name!"

"Cut it out. You can hardly be called a straight man."

"Man, that's harsh." Aogami complied. "The ice cream shop is closed for renovations."

"…Say whaaaaaaat?"

**Part 5.**

Himegami Aisa entered a certain café.

It was not a rush hour yet, however the girl felt quite a discomfort when she saw the sheer amount of thirsty customers who decided to buy themselves something only to not get thrown away from the café.

Aisa frowned at the foul smell which even Academy City's technologies were not able to deal with completely, but that was all the reaction she could produce. She desperately needed to digest some food for her energy was depleted by a long walk.

Thankfully, a polite waiter showed her to an empty table. Aisa slightly nodded her head to him and took a look at the menu.

"So, what would you like?" The waiter smiled nervously. Aisa was unaware of it, but she unconsciously emitted a frightening aura due to her concentration on the menu. The girl looked up from the pictures of meals that certainly would look worse in reality. Her unfocused gaze left the waiter speechless, when he understood that she did not even bother to listen to him.

After all, Aisa moved only because she knew the occupation of the man standing near her, and that was expected of her here.

"Oh." The girl muttered and returned her gaze back to he menu.

The waiter swallowed back a sigh and remained standing near Aisa.

The girl's gaze fell on a bunch of free coupons that someone else left lying on the table.

"These coupons..." The girl whispered.

"Y-yes, they haven't been used yet!" The waiter exclaimed readily, looking at the coupons closely. Exactly as he said, the objects in question could still be used for buying some hamburgers.

Aisa raised her eyebrow, pondering on something, and then opened her mouth.

"Thirty hamburgers and a big coke." She said calmly, without any hesitation.

The waiter's reaction was obvious.

"Y-you sure?" His right hand in which he held a pen to write down the order was trembling

"I sure am." Aisa closed her eyes and leaned back. Hearing how hurried footsteps of the waiter disappeared in the surrounding noise, the girl let her imagination run wild.

Her stomach became a pitch-black abyss waiting for a sacrifice to come. Once the sacrifice disappears in the darkness, the demon forsaken by all will be satisfied. It will let go of the stars it has been holding captive, and their gentle light will illuminate a lonely night. And the veil of darkness she was hiding under will be pierced by silver moonlight.

She will revel in her gained freedom, but a cruel author cannot let her go that easily. Several hardships will be brought to crush her spirit, yet she would never yield to the will of evil creatures. Ever.

The illusion in her mind's eye changed.

She is alone, amidst ruins of an old village. White ashes surround her, covering everything from the roofs of collapsed buildings to the ground beneath her feet. Her black hair shimmers under the moonlight, appearing white from both ashes and reflection of the light playing on her hair.

The air is still. Nothing can ever change the eerie picture of the dead world, and she cannot even utter something. A shining string of tears slowly moves down her cheek, the only indicator of her emotions.

She does not scream; the suffocating silence holds her throat fast. A crimson streak of blood runs down her pale neck, reminding her of what had happened a while before.

People ran, people died. Vampires rampaged, vampires cried, vampires had their bodies turn into ashes. Heads flew, hands fell down. The screams rang, the silence fell.

She had no words to describe what she had seen. And even if she had, she was unable to voice them, bring them to life. The words were painful, the sight was awful.

And so, she could only wish, wish desperately, trying to fight her sorrow.

_I want to be a spell-caster._

A beautiful dream had been born from the ugliness of the world. Such was a wish of a weak girl who wanted to create a better world.

"But-" Aisa whispered, returning herself to reality. She could not be lost in endless escapism. The girl was unable to do anything, and could not delusion herself forever. "The dream is nothing but a lie."

**Part 6.**

Kamijou always knew that fortune did not favor him. He would almost certainly find himself in the most ridiculous situations once he let his guard down, that was his stance on such a trivial for most people matter. Especially, the unfortunate boy reminded himself, in a café full of customers when it was entirely possible to knock over a waitress or stumble on slippery floor. He would often find himself completely drenched in water or, what was worse than anything else, soda drinks. These awful carbonated drinks full of sugar and several harmful additives were extremely hard to clean off, and yet, exhausted customers just liked to order them for no reason at all.

Kamijou wanted to clench his fist in anguish, but there was a certain reason he could not complain about his misfortune. Once he let out his catchphrase, the Iron Wall girl would not hesitate to lecture him in front of all these people. Even a thought of such humiliation was unbearable for poor in every sense of this word Touma. And he needed to treat her to a drink.

"I'm sorry, but we currently don't have any empty tables." A young waiter apologized to their small company.

Fukiyose frowned slightly and decide to inquire further.

"Well, we don't mind a company if there are some empty seats."

Both boys behind her back cringed a little, hoping that there were empty seats. They did not want to go outside and fry themselves under the Sun's display of generosity.

"Y-yes, it's certainly a possibility." The waiter smiled pleasantly and showed them to a table where a girl in miko attire resided. Speaking more boldly, she sprawled her body over stained surface of the table. Her breathing was heavy and erratic, while her body shook a little. And these were the only signs that showed she was alive.

Kamijou tore his gaze off the self-styled miko and a small mountail of burgers in front of her and noticed that waiter took his leave already.

_Is she that bad of a customer?_ The boy thought. _Wait, wait, the girl's not a problem. Rather-_

Kamijou's fist was already clenched by the time his hand intercepted shady movements of Aogami.

"What's up, Kami-yan?" The boy asked innocently. Kamijou turned his inquisitive gaze to him.

"Oh, I thought that a certain individual has too many fetishes to let him touch a girl." Touma decided to speak what was on his mind.

"C'mon, I'm not that bad." Aogami smiled peacefully.

_And who had been arrested by Anti-Skill and Judgement thirty times this year already?_

Kamijou sighed and gingerly touched the girl's shoulder with his right hand under Fukiyose's dangerous gaze. He simply wanted to shake her a little, yet the moment his fingers touched miko, the sound akin to that of glass breaking rang.

What?

Kamijou was not the only one surprised. Aogami furrowed his brows, and his eye-lids opened ever so slightly having a dangerous glint in them. Fukiyose's brows jumped in surprise, with the girl being the only one who did not fully comprehend what just happened.

Miko, unperturbed by the sudden turn of events, raised her head from the table and looked at Kamijou's right hand.

Then she looked up.

"Please, hold my hand."

"Huh?"

**Part 7. **

Himegami was surprised.

Throughout her life she always felt that the air around her was a little too dense to her liking. When she was brought into Academy City researchers told her that it was nothing but a side-effect of her ability she was born with. Sadly enough, they were unable to tell anything else. They could not even grade her power properly since her AIM-field density alone was not nearly enough to scientists.

It was not like she could blame them. She could not show them what she was capable of, nor did she want to. However, they were able to discern that she emitted some kinds of pheromones, and found some anti-bodies in her blood. Unfortunately for her, the attackers from Misawa Cram School chose exactly that moment to attack laboratory she had been in. At the end of the day, the results of their research were lost, and scientists from Misawa did not really bother with her blood, focusing on her brain.

As such, she always felt pressured by the air around her.

Till the exact moment she felt a ginger touch of someone's hand on her shoulder.

_It's impossible. How...?_ The girl raised her head. In front of her were two boys, one of which had his right hand on her shoulder, while the second was squinting with a tense expression, and a girl with noticeable bust. Himegami wrinkled her nose slightly, feeling a weak aroma of the girl's perfume. _Violets? _

Young escapee breathed in, trying to take in all the changes in her surroundings. In that exact moment she felt like she was freed from her shackles bound to her forever. Perhaps, if she heard that sound right, these sensations were akin to a light wind flowing through the broken window of a small room.

Himegami knew only one thing. She wanted this exact moment to last forever, and if she needed to hold that boy's hand, she would do it.

"Please, hold my hand." Himegami looked straight in the boy's eyes.

"Huh?"

At first, he was surprised, but he was quick enough to recover. The boy with spiky hair removed his hand from her shoulder and gingerly touched her fingers. Himegami shuddered under the pressure that enveloped her once again so she involuntarily squeezed his palm stronger than she should have.

"It's- cold." The boy heaved a sigh and nodded to the blue-haired guy behind him. "Aogami, she's not a threat."

_Oh, so that's why he was so tense._ Himegami mused watching how Aogami's facial muscles relaxed and his eye-lids shut tightly. _What an interesting eye color._

"Hey, Kamijou. For how long exactly do you intend to hold her hand?" The girl asked with a slight frown. Himegami was sure that she would be able to feel the girl's anger if her power had been active.

"Well..." Kamijou scratched his head with his free hand. His gaze almost pleaded her to save him from the girl's wrath.

Himegami stifled a laugh.

"If I were to choose instead of him..." Aisa made a pause allowing a weak smile appear on her serene face. "I'd ask him to hold my hand forever."

The girl's expression grew colder while Aogami's brows flew in surprise. The most shocked at a sudden proposal was Kamijou but Himegami decided that the girl's reaction was more interesting.

"Jealous, miss...?" Himegami asked tilting her head. And, of course, she moved a bit closer to Kamijou.

"It's Seiri. Fukiyose Seiri." The girl shook her head with her hands on hips. Her breathing became a bit quicker than it originally was, yet her skin was not flushed. Either she could not be embarrassed by such level of teasing, or she simply understood Himegami's intentions. "And yours?"

Aisa yanked on Kamijou's hand. The surprised boy sat down avoiding close contact with Himegami's body as skillfully as he could while trying not to flip the table.

"I am Himegami Aisa." She lowered her head low enough to indicate a polite nod. "Pleased to meet you. And..."

"And?" Fukiyose took a seat opposite of her. Aogami swiftly moved to the side with a fox-like smile on his face. He even touched his piercing with his fingers enjoying the situation wholeheartedly.

"Help yourselves. Thirty hamburgers are a bit too many for me alone." Himegami squeezed Kamijou's hand again causing him shift uncomfortably.

"A bit?"

"Thirty!?"

"Thanks a bunch, Himegami-chan!"

_Ah, they're so funny._

**Part 8.**

_What misfortune. _

Kamijou sighed at miko's mysterious antics. He understood that Imagine Breaker somehow affected her abilities but it was still unknown what Himegami was capable of. Because of that Makijou coud not help but become interested in learning who the girl in miko's attire was.

"So, Himegami-san, where do you study?" Fukiyose asked, sipping her sport drink. Kamijou still wondered how she got her healthy meal in a café that served hamburgers and other types of unhealthy food. However, he decided the efforts were not worth it when he sneaked a look at a worn-out waiter.

"Well- Misawa." Himegami replied in nonchalant voice.

"Oh?" Aogami decided to stop indulging himself in free hamburgers and licked his lips. "So you're not a cosplayer."

"No, I'm not." Himegami nodded.

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Kamijou found a moment to join conversation, at last.

"Ya dunno, Kami-yan?" Aogami smiled, amused by Kamijou's lack of knowledge. "Misawa Cram School is well-known for its supplementary courses for students."

"And?" Kamijou raised an eye-brow.

"And the rumors say that they had a techno cult for a while. All boards were desperate to know about it but teachers warded off intruders." Aogami proceeded with his explanations dropping his pretentious accent. He took a sip of big coke. "A certain nyan-absentee said they stole all occult stuff from Shinto."

"_Occult_?" Kamijou's voice changed slightly. Fukiyose did not seem to pick on that change but Aogami definitely caught it. Kamijou caught a hold of himself when he noticed that Himegami squeezed his hand. She signaled with her eyes that she was hurt because he tightened his grip accidentally. "Oh, sorry."

Himegami shook her head.

"It's nothing." She lowered her gaze. Himegami slightly opened her mouth but she never managed to say anything else.

The reason for her forced silence was the fall of a certain red-haired magician on the cold floor and the sound of glass breaking.

_Stiyl...?_

"Well then. It's time for you to return, Deep Blood." A man in a white suit calmly walked through broken window ignoring panic around him. Fights in Academy City occurred periodically so customers could not be surprised by the sudden outburst of violence here and there. However, it was rare for a battle to be continued in places like that when it started outside.

Some customers decided to hide beneath their tables, while others ran away without bothering about bills. Waiters disappeared in staffroom apparently since Kamijou was unable to catch a sight of even one of them. By the way, his friends made a one odd group since they did not stand from their seats.

Himegami tugged on his hand nervously.

"You don't want to go?" Kamijou asked turning her attention to himself.

Himegami looked in his eyes with a pain showing in her expression, but she let go of his hand and stood up.

With a steady gait the girl strolled to the man.

However...

_Don't let them get away! Kamijou Touma!_ Stiyl moved only his eyes in a silent cry but the boy understood the meaning of his message anyway. Aogami sighed and grabbed Fukiyose's hand running away from café.

"Thanks, Aogami." Kamijou thanked his friend silently and ran to Himegami.

Unfortunately, Aogami's efforts were wasted.

"**C** _G_ **S**." The strange man in white suit rubbed his fingers once Himegami stood by his side.

That simple motion produced a strange shockwave. Kamijou raised his right hand to block it, yet it alone was not enough to stop the attack completely.A strong gust of wind lifted him up in the air and Kamijou's back slammed into the wall.

"He uses catalysts! Don't block his attack, dodge them!" Stiyl rolled to the side, avoiding another gust of wind. His movements were restricted to two-dimensional, or so it seemed, because he did not even try to stand up.

Kamijou bit his lip, trying to return to himself control over his movements, and jumped to the side. Once the wind howled beside him, he ran forward once again.

"**M** _M_ **L**." The man uttered and moved his hand in Kamijou's direction.

The boy brought up his hand, ready to dodge an attack, but his legs gave in and he fell on the floor.

"What the-!?" Kamijou could not understand anything at all. How did that man's magic work? What was wrong with his legs?

"Tch!" Stiyl clicked his tongue and tried to pull out his cards.

"Too slow. **C** _G_ **S**." The gust of the wind knocked Stiyl out. Kamijou shielded his head with his hands.

Once he removed his hands from his eyes, the man was gone.

And so was Himegami.

* * *

**And so was ****_Between the Lines_****.**

**Yeah, it's supposed to be a pun, don't throw rotten tomatoes at me, please.**

**I based Aureoulus's alchemy on certain signs from actual alchemy so his abbreviations actually mean something. You can have fun guessing what his catalyst was. And... he's certainly OP in original so I decided that he needed to be OP even without support of his Ars Magna.**

**Also, Himegami has broken fourth wall in some sense. Don't ask me how, I just thougt it would be amusing. Also, it's a nice change compared to original novels when Kamachi gives her inner thoughts some focus only in certain ****_situations_****. More specifically, when she's on the verge of death. **

**Fukiyose... you remember that she does not even have a slightest idea about Touma in his serious mode? I figured that she does not know about his Imagine Breaker either so that's the reason behind her not understanding the situation fully. And hail to her communication skills. **

**As for Kamijou not crying out Stiyl's name loud, I figured that he is a more focused type when his memories are intact. Also, he simply does not nearly enough time to divert his attention much. Enjoy the moments when he's pummeled by techniques. Aureoulus is sly enough to get away before Kamijou starts punching around (insert a forced laugh here).**

**Also, I decided on the theme of the next arc. I need to fill the gap (three weeks, enough to throw in three arcs in Indexverse, y'know) with something. The only problem is to decide on the actual content but I'll figure that out eventually. And this is the time when I end my rant.**

**See you next time. **


	5. Chapter 4

**A/N: Hello again! It's me with a new chapter that's going to be a hit-or-miss thing. You see, I've spent a lot of time, trying to write it down, and so it became so large! I expect that some parts will be pretty hard to read, but stick with me, please! I hope that some scenes will be enjoyable, at the very least.**

**With that said, read and, hopefully, enjoy.**

* * *

**Chapter 4. In the tower. The_Siege.**

**Part 1.**

The spell that had been pressing Stiyl down was easily dispelled by Imagine Breaker. Fortunately, Kamijou and red-haired magician had fast legs, because café's staff was seriously inclined to make poor boy go broke. After a hot run they decided to hide in the park they had a fight in.

"You really want me to go and fight that guy? That's crazy!" Kamijou complained weakly. His back still hurt a little but he could bear with it. Stiyl, on other hand, took Aureoulus's attacks worse. Magician still could not recover completely and was staggering a little despite all his pitiful efforts to look better than he did.

"Yes, I do." Stiyl heaved a sigh and tapped his cigarette box. Taking one, he put it in his mouth and lit it with a snap of his fingers. "That damn alchemist is strong, but he's not unbeatable. If we had taken him there, everything would've been simpler."

"What do you mean?" Kamijou could understand Stiyl's reasoning but it seemed that magician meant something else.

"I need to start from basics, huh? That's what it means to work with an amateur." Stiyl flicked ashes from his cigarette and puffed out purple smoke. Kamijou held his breath, trying not to breathe it in. "Let's see. What do you know about Paracelsus?"

"Who's that guy?"

Stiyl sighed and waved his cigarette.

"It's the most famous alchemist in the world, you know. That's not the point, though." Magician looked at something distant with a vacant look. "It's just that Aureoulus is his descendant."

"And does that make him awesome?"

"Not really. He simply made use of two years he had in advance." Stiyl stopped abruptly, taking a catious look at Kamijou.

"You're hiding something from me." Kamijou returned a strong gaze. "He beat you up more than necessary."

"Tch." Stiyl started regretting his slip of tongue. "It's a long story."

"I'll punch you if it was something important." Kamijou warned him and sighed.

"Whatever. In any case, let's return to Aureoulus. He's an alchemist, but it doesn't really mean anything except for one fact." Stiyl threw away his cigarette. A cylindrical robot immediately picked it up and with an angry clang went off. "He's nothing in other branches of magecraft. Moving on, besides Alchemy (the operation of the Sun) there is Astrology (the operation of the Moon) and Theurgy (the operation of the stars). They are the so-called three parts of the wisdom of the whole universe. For you, they are like maths, chemistry and physics, being a basis for one's knowledge.

"As a rule of a thumb, alchemists pursue the knowledge. They experiment to learn principles behind the end result of their sophisticated work. And it basically leads us to the power behind Aureoulus's techniques you've seen earlier."

Kamijou perked up his ears.

"Magnum Opus. The alchemists' great project for the sake of creating a philosopher's stone."

"Like that in the first HP film?"

"More or less. It's believed that the process consists of several phases, and the precise number is unknown. I'm sure that Aureoulus used twelve steps as the basis."

"Why?"

"Astrology. It's easy to base your spell on something that already exists." Stiyl shook his head as if fed up with explanations already. "Zodiacs signs, to be precise."

Kamijou was silent, trying to absorb all information he needed to battle Aureoulus.

"Don't bother. It's unlikely he'd use them in Misawa." Stiyl interrupted his train of thought.

"Misawa- Hey!" Kamijou raised his voice in protest. "You never said that we were going to fight in the school!"

"I didn't? Well, no matter." Stiyl shrugged his shoulders. "He already turned it into his...laboratory. By the way, to explain the nature of alchemists better, they are pretty similar to your researchers in Academy City."

"Huh?"

"Well, researchers try to understand the world's laws for creating a working model to base everything on, right? At least, that's what I was told. Alchemists bothered with the same stuff to create an artificial model of the world with all its laws. In other words, Ars Magna."

"Impossible! Do you know how many laws are behind our universe!?" Kamijou was flabbergasted by the sheer pretense of Stiyl's words.

"That's the point." Magician answered nonchalantly. "They did create a spell, but it's terrifyingly enormous. Chanting it will take at least two hundred years."

Kamijou calmed down gradually, influenced by Stiyl's behavior.

Rune magician did not even realize it himself, but he dug into the core of the Academy City's existence. After all, Alchemy was just a path to Theurgy, which ultimate goal is the attainment of Divine Consciousness.

**Between the Lines 3.**

"Geez, his snacks did not sate my hunger in the slightest." Index muttered under her breath.

She had been wandering in the streets for a while, after talking and eating with a strange boy called Accelerator. Judging by his reaction, he did not want to let her go but Index managed to convince him that she was fine on her own. The girl did not want to bring others in her own problems more than they already were.

Especially, Espers. Accelerator was certainly a strong fighter, so the fragile balance between Magic Side and Science Side would be broken if the fight between him and an unknown Saint were to occur once more. Sadly, Index was ultimately unable to find any signs of Anglican Church to take refuge in anywhere, so she simply continued with her tedious work of throwing her pursuer off her tracks.

However, something caught her attention instantly as it involved her specialty. She was one of the best analysts of magic in the world, so once her sharp senses picked up a distant sign of a barrier being erected, she immediately went to the source of the signal in order to analyze its structure.

Index believed that her actions could benefit Anglican Church somehow but she could not really understand her own reasoning completely. The girl did not know anything about Freud's teachings so she simply wrote it off as a sign of divine providence.

By the end of her stroll, Index found herself in front of the entrance to one of the four buildings of Misawa Cram School. A transparent door shifted to the side, letting her in.

Index felt something ominous about it, being unfamiliar with all the strange technology that made up the city, but she walked in the building.

It was a mistake that made the Fortune's Wheel spin only faster.

**Part 2.**

Once Stiyl was finished with his explanations, Kamijou's phone rang unexpectedly.

"Hello?" The spiky-haired boy brought his phone to the ear.

"Hi there, Kami-yan. How's your silly head?" Aogami's lighthearted voice dispersed Kamijou's worries about his classmates.

"I'm fine. What about Fukiyose?"

"That's cold, man. She's rightfully angry at you, so I fear she'll snap as soon as she sees you." Aogami chuckled while Kamijou shuddered, predicting the outcome of Fukiyose's lecture. He would certainly need some bandage to recuperate for a while.

"Oh, alright." Kamijou decided to play it safe, swallowing his retort.

"What about Himegami-chan?" Aogami's voice turned serious. He was not a man who could easily forget someone's kindness. Except for Touma's, but they were buddies.

"I'll find a way to help her somehow." Kamijou answered bitterly, but his eyes lit with confidence. Aogami laughed picking up on his friend's mood.

"Take care, Kami-yan. May Delta Force be with you."

"Go to hell with your damn references!" Kamijou hang up and switched his phone off. He felt that some weight was thrown off his shoulders but now he needed to focus on the task at hand.

"Ready?" Stiyl's voice resounded in his ears.

"Any time."

**Part 3.**

"Intruders. What exactly do they need here?"

**Part 4.**

Kamijou Touma entered the South building of Misawa through automatic door.

He was unsure whether Stiyl's plan of him attracting the attention of any possible defenders was as sound as it appeared on the first glance but the boy did not really have choice. Magician would sneak in later, once the entrance was not guarded anymore.

_Amateurs should let professionals do their work, huh? He's got quite a high opinion of himself._ Kamijou mused. The entrance hall was huge, yet he did not feel like suffocating due to sunlight pouring through glass. Marble floor felt a bit too hard to his liking and seemed to drain his energy with each step, but he decided it was nothing much.

The hall was full of students. However, Kamijou did not see anyone happy, instead they were lifeless and talked only about studying. The boy definitely learned one important thing the moment he stepped in the hall: techno cult was a frightening thing. Kamijou knew about some psychological tricks like brain-washing and imprinting, but the knowledge was one thing. The actual sight made him want to throw up.

Another strange phenomenon was the fact that while Kamijou was able to single out some strange robot lying in a large crimson poodle, everyone else did not seem to mind it at all.

_Actually... They don't react to me, either. It's like we exist in different overlapping dimensions._ Kamijou looked intently at the poodle. It hardened already, yet no one bothered to wipe it out. Academy City's residents did have a strange common sense, but they were not so removed from reality to not deal with this mess.

Kamijou walked to the puddle and noticed that his footsteps left some marks on it. Students' did not.

_It's not a robot._ Kamijou covered his mouth with his left hand. Heavy stench of rust filled his nostrils. _It's a corpse._

Kamijou hastily turned away from the mutilated man and clenched his teeth. He was not prepared to see a corpse here, in a prep school of all things for crying out loud. With his throat burning dangerously and his eyes hurt, Kamijou tried to forget what he had just seen. If he failed, his psyche might simply give in to immense rage flaring deep in his heart. The boy's teeth clattered, and he reminded himself about his mission.

_I'm sorry. But there is still a girl who could be saved._ With a heavy weight on his heart, Kamijou went to the elevator slowly, breathing out hot air. His fingers touched the polished button lightly, yet he could not press it. _This place is creeping me out. I cannot interact with anything?_

Kamijou bit his lip hard to clear his cloudy mind and ran to the stairs. His destination was a restaurant on fifth floor. Stiyl said that it was the closest suspicious place without explaining anything.

His feet started hurting. Kamijou felt like the floor was rejecting him, but it did not propel him higher than usual. The phenomenon was unexplainable with scientific means, so the boy warded the stray thoughts off.

"No way in hell I'm going to run the stairs up again." Kamijou brushed off cold sweat from his forehead. His breathing grew heavy and his stamina was worn out, but there was still some energy left in his body.

Cautious, Kamijou went down the empty corridor, catching his breath. He was totally clueless on what to do next, but he proceeded with his walk. Kamijou turned his head from side to side, prepared to intercept any attack flying towards him. Nothing happened.

In fact, dead silence of the place unnerved him. It was totally abnormal, if he was to take into account the fact that Misawa's students studied without any holidays. Their entire life after some fanatics turned the school's curriculum into a techno cult was research, studying while pulling all-nighters, tests, ad infinitum. However, was there not anything else, lying beneath activities on the surface? Kamijou shuddered at the prospect of teachers dissecting their pupils for the sake of copying someone's ability. A meaningless operation, indeed, but not everyone had a bright mind.

While scaring himself with terrifying ideas, Kamijou reached his destination. The cafeteria's door was open so things went well for the boy. Or so he thought.

The cafeteria was wide, with plenty long white tables for students and teachers alike. Were it not a creepy place with eerie aura enveloping it, the banquet here would have been a good idea. It was certainly possible to throw a party for a tenth part of the Misawa's students without worrying about space.

However, dull interior and boring color palette cut off Touma's vivid imagination. Even his classroom was livelier with its simple, cheap decorations. Obviously, there was a clear difference in interests between schools, yet... that was like comparing extreme opposites.

Touma carefully wove his way through the crowd, being as nimble and precise with his movements as he could. He could not help but compare himself with Aogami who was able to move quickly in any environment, on any kind of terrain.

Kamijou heaved a sigh. He was still an amateur when things came to controlling his body, after all.

Carefully maintaining the distance from the counter where most students were standing, the boy reached the back of the cafeteria.

_Now then. What to do?_ Kamijou mused and looked around. Even if the cafeteria was not buzzing with conversations, there were many students here and there. And if there was a hidden room, he would not be able to interact with a switch.

_Wait up._ Kamijou looked at a certain direction. There were tables in schools that were not popular and were empty most of the time, with the love of students to telling scary tales it was inevitable. But even they would be eventually filled once there was no other empty seat.

That was not the case here. A certain area was absolutely desert, and not even one of students was near it. Nothing would be wrong, were it dark place with weak illumination. However, it was nicely lit with gentle sunlight and lighting of the room itself. That table was a perfect place to study, and Kamijou doubted that some students would give up such an opportunity to read some textbooks. Not with constant remarks about those who did not study were trash flying around.

Kamijou walked straight to the suspicious area. He needed to tick the cafeteria off and get away from this creepy place.

Moving as silently as he could, the boy reached the area soon.

"What the-?" Kamijou's eyes widened, and he abruptly stopped in his tracks.

The boy felt that he became a protagonist of a horror game. His mind grew numb, while his breathing stopped. Heavy atmosphere of the place finally got to him, and it was gradually corroding his reasoning.

There was a single eyeball embedded into the floor.

The sheer absurdity of the sight paralyzed Kamijou's thoughts. He found the sight revolting but he could not even find energy to try and forget it like he did with mutilated body of the man in armor.

The eye was spinning around, taking in everything in its vicinity. Yet, once its line of sight fell on Kamijou, it stopped. The red iris widened slightly as if asking the boy to help it.

Kamijou finally broke free of his mental bounds, and sat on his knee reaching to the eyeball. Slowly, he stretched his hand, holding his breath, and gingerly touched it. Once his fingers touched the eyeball, it turned to white ash all of sudden.

"What was that?" Kamijou muttered and stood up only to see that strange phenomenon caught unexpected attention.

Students stood up, and the blue glowing balls appeared in front of them.

"I'm done for."

**Part 5.**

The life of a magician was obviously more dangerous than that of an Esper. A mission followed by another mission with one's life at stake was just a part of of their routine. Nothing more, nothing less.

What was most important for a magician to uphold one's ideals carried out in their name and live on. Once that pillar was broken, one was a magician no more. They would be just an empty shell, a marionette without strings to keep it intact. Yet, it did not mean they would cease to exist. Their magic would still be with them, and that was made them dangerous heretics.

Basically, that was the very reason for Necessarius's existence. The magicians that made up this organization were hunters, well-experienced in battles and various types of torture. And that task imposed on them was just a price they paid for their partial independence and protection from other magic organizations.

Two years ago Stiyl did not need his privileges. He hunted Necessarius's enemies without hesitation, claiming it was his only goal in his life. A little kid, truly. As such, he did not really have troubles with choosing his magical name.

However, once he decided to protect a little girl who knew nothing about outside world, his view of the world changed completely. Stiyl learned what it meant to live for someone else. He wanted to share everything with that girl, wanted to show her all wonders of this world and even make some more just for her and her alone.

Alas, his dreams were crushed by decease that plagued the girl.

She had forgotten him. Each and every sweet memory she held dear was trampled by harsh reality.

And, as if it was not enough-

"Oh, a fake knight from Roman Catholics? And they turned Percival into an archer to boot. They've got some nerve to mock English Knights." Stiyl chewed on his cigarette lightly, touching a tattoo under his eye. He did not really have time to spend on reminiscing. Old memories were meant to be kept deep in his heart, not near surface when they could bring pain to him.

With light steps Stiyl went forward, without taking notice of a dead body inside entrance hall of South building. It was a battle field, after all, so some losses from both sides were to be expected. Besides, Stiyl was not a saint himself.

Magician found students' behavior worth his attention, though. They did not seem to mind a corpse at all, nor did they sneak a look at Stiyl himself. It was as if they were on different sides of a coin.

_Oh, so that's how it works. I see, it was probably a mistake to have that guy be a bait. Well, it's too early to cross him out of this siege, though._ Stiyl mused. Once his foot touched the floor, it seemed to be repelled unnaturally. _A side-effect, it seems. A boundary envelops entire complex, I guess. And to think that he took out a Knight all by himself..._

Fortunately, Stiyl had his equipment on himself. Most likely, his cards were not nearly enough to take Aureoulus out in alchemist's own sanctuary, but he did not really have anything else to rely on. A shield had his own mission, after all.

_An elevator is out of question. Oh, what's with this crazy torrent of energy?_ Stiyl raised an eyebrow. Blue glowing balls appeared before each student's forehead. Magician stopped in is tracks and minimized leaks of his own mana. He certainly did not need to attract attention.

His little trick paid off. Students climbed stairs, chanting sacred words of extermination and leaving Stiyl on his own.

_That bastard! To think that he would use a copy of Gregorian Chant!_ Stiyl cursed silently. Aureoulus crossed the line, carefully maintained by Magic Side and Science Side. That alchemist involved Espers in his experiment even though it was a violation of unspoken rules. It meant that now Aleister had enough cards in his hands to bring more powerful Espers into this mess.

_I cannot get his intentions. Oh well, it's not a real problem._ Stiyl waited for a while and then started climbing stairs. A powerful spell that made use of an enormous number of people required a core to control and stabilize it. And with tremendous flow of energy in the building it was easy enough to pinpoint the core's location.

"Eighth floor." Stiyl sighed and threw away his cigarette. It slowly landed on the floor and spun around. Rotation was so fast that Stiyl could not even see the true shape of the cigarette. _Something's wrong. There's interference from West building._

Stiyl Magnus knew two things. First, fake Gregorian Chant, a copy of a spell that required 3,333 monks to chant continuously in order to annihilate Roman Catholics' enemies, did not need two cores. One was more than enough to control it.

And second, the interference came from a completely different building. Styil knew nothing about ritual magic that required a certain arrangement of mystic symbols but he could swear that the location of the second core was absurd. The flow of mana became chaotic because of interference, and it did nothing good to spell itself.

However, Stiyl liked to solve problems in the most suitable order. The core of the spell was definitely closer than the completely unknown source of energy, and-

"Well, the more that boy catches attention, the better it is for me." Stiyl mumbled, jumping from the stairs into eighth floor. He did not need to save Kamijou Touma. Magician only did not want to waste his trump cards.

"Oh?" Stiyl took a cigarette from the box and lit it. His eyes examined the interior of the hallway he found himself in, and his gaze stopped on the wall opposite of him. The core of the spell was definitely inside of it. "Seriously, you've gotta be kidding me. Even a novice'd be able to destroy the core."

Flames flew from the tip of his cigarette and filled gaps in the wall. They needed only several seconds to destroy the core completely.

Stiyl sighed and stretched his body. Sadly, he was not meant to be strong physically, so now he was exhausted. His will was the only thing that made him able to continue his hunt as proudly as he could. Yet, he had no time to relax.

"One more to go."

**Part 6.**

Kamijou had no room to evade. The entire cafeteria was filled with mysterious glowing balls, and students did not stop muttering their creepy chant in the slightest. Besides, he could hear hurried footsteps of other students who were still in the hallway.

Kamijou gritted his teeth, feeling how powerless he was. The boy could handle a part of attackers but he could not deal with all of them. It was simply impossible. His right hand did not matter, the sheer number of students in cafeteria denied him a chance to escape his predicament. In the worst case, he would die. Just for the record, Kamijou could not think of the outcome in the best case.

"Damn it." He cursed and took a slight step back. His back bumped into the table, and Kamijou needed to muster all his self-control to not curse again. However, a completely natural screech of the table helped him regain his dexterity of the mind.

_Is it a point of intersection between two dimensions?_ Kamijou wondered wordlessly. Whether his guess was right or not, he now could use the interior as he liked, so his odds to survive this predicament improved significantly. Kamijou's tense muscles relaxed slightly, and then he jumped on the table, moving as fast as he could.

In one swift movement he kicked the nearest student in the guts, disrupting his chanting, and jumped off the table. Crouching on all fours, Kamijou lifted a corner of the table, making an improvised shield out of it. Two shining blue balls turned it into splinters, but the boy was not there already.

He rolled to another table and sent it with a strong kick into a group of students, making use of their confusion. The table slammed into five or four of them, sending them on the floor. Without confirming the success of his move, Kamijou raised his right hand and dispelled two balls, running towards another group of opponents.

Kicking one student into shin, he punched the ball flying at him and felt how his fist connected with someone's face. Then Kamijou jumped from the opponents lying on the floor and waved off another wave of balls.

He could not even call it a serious battle anymore. Students simply stood before him, helpless before his assault despite the magic they used. Kamijou could not really tell magic and abilities apart, but it was abnormal when all students around him were chanting and attacking in the same manner.

Espers did not need words to control their abilities except for some rare cases. By the time their brains performed needed calculations, their Personal Realities would have overwritten their surroundings. The process was pretty fast, so they would not really be able to utter words while they executed attacks.

And so, Kamijou used Occam's razor. He did not need any other kind of explanations while he fought.

Or so he thought.

"What-?" Kamijou froze on his place, stupefied by bizarre sight.

Eyes of one of the students burst like a balloon pierced by a needle, and blood flowed like a fountain from his eye sockets. Another one stood stoically despite his heavy nosebleed. A third student fell on the floor like a doll with its batteries dead, with the bloodstains on their ears, and a small crimson poodle started accumulating near her head. A girl's skin burst open, her blood vessels ripped apart by the sudden change in blood pressure.

And the strange phenomenon did not stop on that. The changes were visible on almost every student here, with the most horrible of them hidden under their school uniform. Yet, despite their bodies being torn apart, students did not cry or shout. They were not even allowed to do this much. They could only look at the boy indifferently, without moving a muscle, like empty shells.

Kamijou felt numb. His vision blurred and hot tears appeared in his eyes. The boy's mind went blank, leaving him one-on-one with blinding anger.

"What is this?" Kamijou opened his mouth, unable to breathe properly. "How-?"

"Oh, it's nothing but an exact depiction of a problem, magicians and scientists alike thought about." A calm voice resounded in the cafeteria. Kamijou slowly turned his head in its direction. His right hand was trembling from intense vortex of emotions swirling inside the boy. "Espers cannot use magic because their bodies reject natural change of their living energy into mystical energy. As a result, their blood pressure raises explosively which leads to exactly what you see here. Data from a joint project between Anglican Church and Academy City was not misinformation, it seems."

A green-haired man in white suit from before stood in the middle of the cafeteria. His face with sharp features held nothing but a cold mask of indifference. His piercing gaze fixed on Kamijou, and a twisted smirk appeared on his thin pale lips.

"An exceptional spell, I'd say. I'm impressed." Aureolus's eyes showed nothing but madness of an interested researcher. "Let me experiment then."

"You bastard." Kamijou could not find the right words to rebuke him.

"Am I really?"

But he had his right hand.

"The researchers here are far more brutal than I am. You should've seen a chamber near the counter."

And it was more than enough to him.

Kamijou clenched his fist to the point it almost started bleeding and rushed towards alchemist, completely disregarding countless glowing orbs. As if mocking the boy, Aureolus raised his hand elegantly and slowly, and a golden dart shot from a sleeve of his jacket. Alerted by the sudden movement, Kamijou ducked under the dart hastily, and then tugged on a chain bound to the dart. Alchemist widened his eyes, and made a step forward in order to balance himself, while golden chain dissipated.

In that fleeting moment, Kamijou closed distance between them in one jump and sent a jab into Aureolus's face. Alas, another golden dart shot from seemingly nowhere, cutting through Kamijou's right hand's skin and throwing his punch out of the way. The boy winced in pain and kicked alchemist in the right side, sending him flying.

Aureolus grimaced, rolling on the floor pathetically, and tried to stand up, but Kamijou's attack was far from the end. The boy kicked him in the chin, letting him fall on his back, and then stomped on his chest hard. When alchemist twisted his body from pain, Kamijou grabbed his collar and slammed him into the floor, robbing him from air.

However, alchemist blindly counter-attacked with another two darts, shooting from his sleeves. Kamijou twisted his body, avoiding their sharp tips and punched one of them to change its trajectory. And then shining orbs flew at him, forcing him to jump away from alchemist buying the latter some time to prepare counter-measures.

"You'll pay." Aureolus stood up, wobbling, and touched his bloodied lips. His look changed to that of a cornered beast, and his killing intent filled the room. "You'll pay."

"Ha. Ahahahahahahahahahaha!" Kamijou could not help but laugh maniacally. He knew that there was something wrong with him but he did not care. Kamijou needed to vent his anger, and the man who started this bloody experiment was an ideal punchbag. "Yes, I will! I'll repay you the pain you caused these children thousandfold!"

"Really?" Aureolus regained his calm suddenly. "Entertain me, savage beast of science."

With a cold snort, alchemist released six golden darts, simultaneously sending a barrage of orbs. Relying on his instincts, Kamijou hastily moved out of their way, dodging them by hair's breadth but...

_Oh, shoot!_

**Splash.**

Darts pierced through students' bodies and returned to their owner, while orbs continued pursuing Kamijou. Fountains of blood flew into the air, and convulsing students stopped moving. However, it was not the end.

Blood.

Flesh.

Bones.

Hair and skin.

Every student, pierced by a dart, had his body transformed into melted gold.

"N-no." Kamijou muttered disbelievingly, moving his body mechanically. "You're shitting me..."

Dispelling the incoming wave of orbs and rolling to the side, Kamijou ceased moving. Orbs encircled him and closed in, but he did not even notice it. His thoughts were finally trapped in self-hatred and cold despair.

_I could have saved them._

Kamijou unclenched his fist. His efforts were meaningless now. Everything he fought for was crushed by violence and malice.

_But I-_

Kamijou lowered his eyes. His heart throbbed, pained.

_But in the end-_

The boy could hear alchemist's erratic breath. Aureolus was speaking but his voice did not reach Kamijou's ears. All that mattered-

_I can only avenge them!_

In an outburst of rage, Kamijou stood up abruptly, dangerous aura enveloping him like an invisible veil. In that very moment all shining orbs that encircled him disappeared as if they had never been here.

Kamijou took a forceful step forward. Growling lowly, he started closing in on the alchemist.

His gait was unsteady and weak. There was no force in his steps.

But an unholy light was blazing in his blue eyes, dying them in amber color. Kamijou's gaze held unthinkable power in it to the point it could no longer be called human's gaze.

It was as if his eyes belonged to a dragon, an ancient creature from legends and myths, waiting to be reborn once more-

It was as if there was a seal that held its power-

And an unknown truth hidden in human-

It was as if a man called Kamijou Touma possessed all these traits.

Aureolus seemed to say something but the boy could not hear him. Step by step, Kamijou slowly moved forward, his angry glare stopping alchemist from doing anything. The great Aureolus, proud of his own name and power, was unable to crush his opponent.

And it infuriated alchemist.

"Honos628!" Aureolus broke free of his fear, albeit not completely, and shot his darts in bodies of remaining students to create a large puddle of melted gold between him and his opponent. But his weapons... never reached their targets, disintegrating into thin air.

"My Limen Magna... It's impossible!" Aureolus froze on his spot, his mouth agape, unable to comprehend what exactly happened.

"**Hey, you fake.**" Deep boy's voice reached alchemist's ears. "**I'm fed up with this shit.**"

Aureolus shuddered, feeling strange pain in his chest. His concentration broken, he turned his attention fully to Kamijou's figure. Alchemist desperately searched for something he could use, but there was nothing. He was powerless before the greatest enemy he had ever seen.

"Fake?" Aureolus gave up on saving his life. An alchemist should be always prepared to forfeit his very existence in exchange for knowledge. It was a rule he would always abide by, such was a meaning of his life.

"**I've seen the real Aureolus. Your presence, your techniques, your attitude-**" Kamijou Touma never stopped. However, his very presence here twisted space and time. The distance between them was never crossed. Yet. "**You are lacking. You're so damn weak that it's humiliating that I let you mess everything up.**"

"Huh?" It did not make sense to Aureolus. He had seen that lad before him the first time in his life.

"**Magnum Opus. What do you know of it?**" Kamijou Touma asked, his eyes piercing Aureolus.

"The process of creating a philosopher's stone?" Confused alchemist answered.

Kamijou did not even bother to hide scorn on his face.

"**So you've never reached it nor have you used it, huh?**" The boy laughed, shortening the distance at last. "**But I have been beaten with that spell.**"

"This-" Alchemist gritted his teeth.

"**Irrelevant.**" Kamijou's presence was overpowering. "**Begone.**"

Both opponents never realized that Kamijou Touma at that moment was infinitely close to the real Aureolus Ezzard.

The boy took the step that put him in a comfortable spot to attack alchemist, at last. And then the violence had begun.

Kamijou started with throwing a punch into Aureolus's jaw. Alchemist could not even force himself to raise his hands in defense, his head thrown to the side.

Not giving the enemy any time, the boy's left hand nearly crushed Aureolus's throat, while the right fist struck his face. Again and again and again and again. Alchemist no longer could count how many times he was punched by the time Kamijou drove a knee into his guts.

Aureolus coughed out blood and spit on the boy, his consciousness flickering in and out. It was not the end, he knew.

Kamijou kicked Aureolus's knee hard, and, pinning Aureolus's foot by a stomp, quickly swung his head in a headbutt. Alchemist shakily started falling on the floor when the boy pulled on his left hand, dislocating his wrist, and punched him.

Only then was alchemist allowed to slam on the floor. His eyes shot elsewhere, not able to focus. A sharp pain from Kamijou's kick into his side did not let his consciousness fade away, though. Another one followed quickly, and after that the boy crushed his right palm under his foot. Sickening crack of his bones washed alchemist's rationality away.

Now he truly was nothing but a cornered beast. Alchemist could do nothing but look at the boy with clouded eyes, without understanding what was going on.

Kamijou raised his foot. If he did stomp on Aureolus's body, he could have killed alchemist. But he did not.

Breathing heavily, Kamijou Touma gritted his teeth, stomping on the floor near Aureolus's body, and clenched his bloodied right fist hard. Shivers ran through his body, and then-

The overpowering presence that filled the area disappeared.

And Kamijou Touma left his battlefield.

He never noticed a red card fall on Aureolus's unmoving body.

**Part 7.**

Himegami Aisa was tending to a collapsed girl. Her patient was damaged badly but bleeding had been stopped already, so Himegami was working on closing the wounds with the girl's hair.

A needle gently pierced delicate skin, slid through it, and then Himegami's thin fingers sewn edges of the wound together. Sighing softly, she tied a knot and stood up. No matter what skills Himegami had, she was just an amateur. What she could was ultimately limited to eliminating blood loss.

"I'm done here, then." Himegami muttered softly in her usual manner, looking at the ceiling absentmindedly. She disliked this extreme violence but there was virtually nothing she could do. Himegami did not have power to defeat alchemist, nor was she an able conversationalist to try and talk him out of this madness. She was helpless, and her uselessness became a heavy burden to her.

Exposed to the cruel world once more, Himegami did not know what to do anymore. She did not have tears to cry. She did not have will to raise her head and escape. After all, she was but a disaster in human shape. She could do naught but bring misfortune and painful death.

_Nothing has changed._

Himegami half-seriously considered suicide but decided against it. She would not return the dead from their world by ending her own life. She would not even end this conflict.

_So why continue doing meaningless things?_

Himegami closed her eyes, her head hung, and bit her lip.

"I'm done here-" She tried to convince herself fruitlessly. Her racing mind was trying to form some sort of decision, but it could not. Who would have known that a dead-end she found herself in would be broken by words that shed light on her doubts?

"If so... what will you do?" A weak voice filled the hallway. Himegami wordlessly turned around, giving in to her impulse. Yet, by the time she finished her motion, surprise was gone from her expressionless face.

Kamijou. Such was a surname of the bloodied boy who stood in front of her. His knuckles were red as if he repeatedly beat something hard like... human being. The boy's empty eyes were fixed on her, but he did not have intimidating air around him. It felt more like despair, cruel and heart-crushing.

_Just what did he see?_ Himegami pondered a little, looking at Kamijou's ashen face, before answering.

"I'll go and hide. There's no reason for me to remain on the battlefield."

His question undoubtedly shot into the core of her doubts. Himegami could not help but give a hastily made-up reply, hoping that she would be able to form her course of actions in a conversation.

Kamijou kept his mouth shut, his shoulders shaking. He looked at his right hand and raised his head at last. Hesitation in his eyes disappeared, replaced by an adamant look.

"Then I'm going to take you from this building."

_What a fool._

"I don't want to go with you." Himegami stated clearly. Her mind was overwhelmed by whirlpool of chaotic thoughts, but she did not let her expression betray her thoughts.

"Why?" Kamijou took a step forward. "Didn't you want to escape from here?"

_Because there's no meaning in escaping._

"It was a wishful thinking, nothing more." Himegami answered with a morose look.

However, she knew. That boy would not buy her halfhearted lie.

"But it wasn't." Kamijou walked to her, looking right into his eyes. "I felt that warmth, that trembling. You can try to fool me all you want, but your hand..."

_He..._

"Oh my. Are you trying to raise a flag here? Or did you simply try to make something up and put your assumptions in my mouth?" Himegami brushed his words off with a cold smile."Do I really look like a princess imprisoned in a tower? But I am not."

"And what does it change? Do you think I'm doing it only because I've seen a damsel in distress?"

_Not really._

"Maybe? Then what if you learn something before rushing to me blindly? What if I say that researchers dissected dozens of students here because of me?" Himegami's voice became strained. Just a little remark was painful. "They cut through boys' brains with cold smirks. They messed with the girls' reproductive functions just because they thought it would be useful for researching me!"

_My existence itself brought them pain._

"You cannot take the blame here." Kamijou gritted his teeth in revolt.

"Then who is at fault? Students who did not know anything? Researchers? This city? Isn't it easier to accept that I am the one to blame?" Himegami frowned, out of breath.

_I went overboard..._

"It's wrong." Kamijou's answer shattered her doubt. Now she was unsure if she used enough arguments against him. "I have no idea what you went through, but... do you really think you're the only one who brought other people pain?"

_What?_ Himegami lost her voice. She expected long-winded, boring speeches, filled with cliches, but not this.

"When I was a toddler, children were afraid to play with me. All because a kid wanted to hang out with me, and then he was ran over by a car. A driver suddenly lost control and turned in the wrong direction. On the empty road." Kamijou averted his gaze.

"It was a coincidence." Himegami widened her eyes involuntarily.

Kamijou continued regardless, his voice lacking emotions.

"When my parents decided to redecorate my room, ceiling fell on workers. Another kid broke his spine, riding a seesaw with me!" He heaved a sigh. "Once rumors spread to my new neighbors, they would ostracize my parents. After all, my Mum gave birth to the accursed kid. Or walking disaster. Misfortune bringer. Devil. Whatever. They did not mean any harm, yeah. But they feared me."

Kamijou returned his gaze to Himegami. She could see void in his eyes, an endless abyss that dared her to delve into its depths.

"In the end, there were even some parents that tried to kill me, you know? They were in frenzy because their kid died or ended up in a hospital. Not that I can blame them."

_That's..._ Himegami became painfully aware of the contradiction Kamijou planted seeds of in her mind. If she accepted his words as they were... if she accepted the change the boy went through, she would deny her way of thinking she had built.

"But you did not kill anyone with your own hands!" Himegami resorted to her last card she could use. It was an extremely unfair trick, but she did not have any choice. Himegami planned to use his momentary confusion to gain upper hand in this pointless debate.

To her surprise, Kamijou was not shaken by her words. A sad smile lingered on his face.

"No, I did not. But does it really matter?" The boy whispered. "In the end, guilt and self-hatred would not disappear whatever you try to do."

Himegami bit her lip, avoiding his gaze for the first time. She did not have anything to counter his words.

"By the way..." Kamijou paused, hesitating. Himegami perked up her ears, feeling that it was a crucial moment that could completely tip the scales. "You do not look like a killer."

"Huh?" Himegami gasped in surprise. She could not understand where he was getting at, and it confused her.

"Your eyes..." Kamijou attempted to smile reassuringly but failed miserably. "It's just a feeling, but, I think, a killer would not be able to have such eyes."

"It doesn't mean anything." The girl shook her head desperately.

_No, if he continues..._

"Really now? Say, have you truly killed?" Just with that one question, the boy crushed Himegami's nutshell.

_I've lost._

"I-" She could not utter a word under Kamijou's heavy gaze.

"I see." The boy suddenly put his hands on Himegami's shoulders, pulling her into a warm embrace. The startled girl inhaled sharply but did not say anything. She was simply unable to. "Hey."

"Yes?" Himegami mumbled, giving up on resisting his words.

"Do you still want me to hold your hand forever?"

The girl froze.

"Huh?" Himegami widened her eyes. "Do you not understand what your words mean...?"

_He did it._

"I do. I am dense but there's a bit of brains in my head." Himegami could imagine Kamijou's embarrassed smile. "Even so, I won't take back my words."

Himegami sighed softly, clinging to the boy's body. Her hands wrapped around his back gingerly, while she buried her face in his chest, sobbing quietly.

"You fool. It would have been better to just let me disappear." She whispered bitterly, feeling how tears swelled up in her eyes. "I was meant for that."

"No one told you that, right?" Kamijou answered soothingly. "Besides, you would've hurt others' feelings, too. Aogami and Fukiyose liked you, you know."

Himegami closed her eyes and smiled lightly.

_Stupid. You. Me. Everyone's so stupid. And even so, I just cannot resist._

"Thank you... K-"

"Just call me Touma."

**Part 8.**

"You're late." Stiyl remarked pointlessly, looking at a pair that appeared from staircase. He himself was leaning on the wall, bearing with discomfort due to rejection from that side of a coin.

Ragged, tired Kamijou did not even bother to retort, walking to him hand in hand with a girl in a miko attire.

"Deep Blood, huh? That's what I need to deal with that thing here." Stiyl whistled in praise. The boy had done well enough to beat a copy of Aureolus. However, Deep Blood's presence here meant that he was more capable than just a single-minded fighter on front lines.

"What do you mean?" The girl asked indifferently. Despite her lack of expression, a little twitch of her facial muscles did not escape Stiyl's trained eye.

"Nothing much. You're just not the only one human, still living on this planet, who had seen a vampire anymore." Magician took a cigarette from his small box, silently cursing at their reduced number, and waved it.

"I... don't believe you." Deep Blood frowned, tightening her grasp on Kamijou's hand. The boy winced in pain, but Stiyl figured that it was because of his damaged knuckles.

"But you will." Magician smiled mysteriously and moved to the side, showing what was behind his back. Just one look at that thing was enough to rob the pair of their breath.

_Well, it's not a pleasant sight, is it?_ Stiyl lit his cigarette.

A beating apple-sized, reddish-purple heart was floating inside a hole in the wall. Blood was leaking from it regularly, but the crimson liquid always returned to its source before landing on the bottom of the hole. Kamijou gritted his teeth, stupefied by an indescribable sight before him, while Himegami Aisa was trembling, her gaze bound to the heart.

_Is it fear? No... Anger? And sadness, I guess._ Stiyl mused, puffing out smoke. Kids' reactions were funny indeed - magician let the fact that he was younger than both kids slip from his memory - but he did not have time to waste. A dark premonition set off alarms in his head.

"Let me ask you. What did Aureolus promise to you?" Magician brought kids back to reality.

The girl cast her gaze down. Judging by her slight tremble, she still did not digest what she had seen yet. It was understandable, but childish. No one was going to give her time to come to terms with it.

"He said that he wouldn't harm a vampire." She spoke through her teeth.

"As I thought." Stiyl shook his head tiredly, before pointing at the heart. "It's protected by something. No idea what happened, but when I tried to destroy it, a portion of the wall was disintegrated by some protective spell. It almost got me."

Stiyl pointed at his burnt robe. As expected, kids did not react, overwhelmed by absurdity of the situation they found themselves in. It was a completely natural reaction for amateurs who got themselves involved in a feud between magicians. Brutal violence, merciless cruelty and bloody battlefields were an everyday routine for darkness of world filled with magic. Nothing could change it, for it had stayed the same for millenia.

"I can take a wild guess at the nature of the spell but it wouldn't change the fact that you both need to use your abilities." Stiyl hid a frown under his fringes. He did not know how the girl's power worked so he was naturally worried. Stiyl did not have any doubts about authenticity of her ability since she did attract a vampire.

"Stiyl..." Kamijou finally decided to take part in conversation. Magician spared him an annoyed glance, but he immediately understood what the boy meant. Giant crimson light hovering in the sky did not promise anything good for anyone who was still in the building. "Get down!"

And everything turned red in the deafening roar of crimson thunder.

**Between the Lines 4.**

"Requiem Aeternam dona eis, Domine..."

Thirteen Knights, having lost one of their members, stood near Misawa Cram School with their heavy swords raised high in the air. Using the power of Gregorian Chant, they directed His Fury on the nest of a poisonous serpent who betrayed their trust.

A great crimson thunder crashed into three buildings out of Misawa Complex and obliterated them. Flashes of light prevented knights from seeing how much damage buildings took, but they were sure that heretic died. Or would die.

"...Et lux perpetua..."

The fact that there might be uninvolved civilians in the school did not bother them in the slightest. First of all, there was a dangerous techno cult, and they actually did a favor to Academy City by crushing it completely before the issue started being dangerous for relationships between Academy City and Roman Catholic Church. As such, there could not be any outsiders in the school who were not involved in this devil's work. And if there were, then may God bless their poor souls. Politicians would have made sure to use them as a symbol of self-sacrifice, though.

"...Luceat eis..."

Second, knights had a permission from their superiors and General Superintendant of Academy City to use everything at their disposal, including bombardment spells. It left a bad taste in their mouths to listen to the leader of Science Side, regarding magical matters, but they needed to deal with it.

"...Requiescant in pace."

And the last but not the least reason was revenge. Their brother-in-arms had been killed, so they wanted to send him off the way he deserved it. He had gone through several battles with them emerging victorious in every one of them, but just this one... A simple reconnaissance turned out to be a last battle for Percival.

"Amen."

Knights lowered their swords sorrowfully. Their duty had not been ended with this act of violence, but they were forced to wait until dust faded away. They could hear how buildings crumbled down as easily as card houses even now when their thunder had destroys the serpent's nest. The noise was calming their souls like peaceful tidal waves.

However, it could not have possibly lasted forever. The sight that appeared before knights left them speechless. Instead of barren soil and melted ruins, they could see mysterious silhouettes amid dust. Further, these silhouettes grew taller and bigger with one of these starting way higher than others.

"That's the devil's work." One of the knights uttered in awe. No one could counter his words, because the complete negation of their efforts left the realm of possible in their comprehension.

Meanwhile, the silhouettes regained their shape of tall skyscrapers, and dust gradually subsided. Knights' leader, who earned the name of Lancelot, considered using Gregorian Chant once more, but quickly rejected the idea as a pointless waste of monks' efforts. The siege required their direct involvement, due to enemy's counter-measures.

"Galahad, secure the entrance. Bedivere, Kay, take left route." Lancelot quickly gave commands, planning the siege. "I'd go through East building."

"Sir..." Galahad pointed at a flash of crimson light, that appeared in the evening sky. Lancelot stopped talking, his thoughts paralyzed by a sudden counter-attack.

"Raise your shields!" He yelled, breaking into cold sweat. They would not be able to escape an attack of such magnitude, but they were able to weaken damage greatly. Crimson light shone brightly, more so than the falling Sun, and then rushed towards them, turning into thunder. Knights braced themselves in a desperate hope that they would be able to live through it.

They did. A silver flash passed in front of them, and a magnificent slash intercepted the thunder. Crimson light dissipated, breaking knights' shields in the process and tearing apart their armor with a great roar. However, they knew: they might not have survived the attack if not for a certain lady and her long sword.

"Saint from Far East?" Lancelot asked disbelievingly. The woman did not turn to him, sheathing her sword, and wordlessly walked to the entrance. Lancelot raised his hand, but quickly lowered it, looking aside. His savior had every right to keep her silence, even if she was not a true believer.

Nevertheless, there was something that worried him. With each step the Saint from Far East took, his consciousness was flickering in and out, and his surroundings started turning dark. His brothers-in-arms already fainted, likely, due to their wounds, but Lancelot still held his ground.

"What... is it?" He muttered faintly before losing his consciousness. His head smacked softly against soil and pebbles.

A group of thirty men and women watched the knights fall on the ground with smirks on their faces.

"Amaterasu spell has been proven successful." A man with long sword that had a nasty-looking curvy blade remarked.

"It's been the last spell that we worked on with Pontiff, right?" A blonde woman with a rapier heaved a sigh. "Such a roundabout way to show that she noticed us."

"She's a gentle girl, Tsushima. Give her some time." The man reprimanded her.

"We hardly had the time to set up spell! That half-baked spell would not have worked if their armor had been intact." Tsushima shook her head. Her complaints were met with sheepish smiles. "I need time, too, you know."

"We all do." The man concluded.

With these words the group disappeared in shadows.

**Part 9.**

Devoid of emotions, alchemist observed the current situation calmly. A command, given by him moments ago, was proven to be a complete success. The buildings reshaped themselves as if knights' bombardment never occurred. The students had been restored to their prime condition, too, while the doll had been disposed of. Alchemist had no reason to keep worthless things.

Judging by severed links with other buildings, rune magician somehow destroyed the core of his main spell. Thankfully, alchemist's power could not be suppressed completely just because of a minor detail, but his control extended to the room he resided in only. It would not pose a problem to him, as rune magician was still forced to go here.

After all, she was here.

Alchemist spared a glance to the unmoving girl, lying in the middle of a giant magic circle, drawn in blood-sucking monster's blood. Her pristine white clothes seemed to reject impurity of the poisonous fluids, but the ritual would change everything.

Actually, alchemist did not expect his bold move to be so successful. A vampire had been drawn to Deep Blood right at the moment he had finished establishing his residence. The creature's capture would have been impossible without fake Gregorian Chant, in the first place. Dissection of the vampire and usage of its organs for Ars Magna yielded better results than his previous attempts. It actually sped up the process, shortening the needed time from two hundred years to half a day. Whatever it was that led to this effect, it must have been related to the laws, which lay at the foundation of the world.

The Deep Blood's betrayal was to be expected, of course. Alchemist broke his promise, forced to hastily finish his preparations before the siege came. If the information he dug on her was authentic, then she would have been alienated by his misdeed. However, it did not matter at this stage.

"The time has come." Alchemist spoke, his expression morose. Even when he was so close to obtaining what he yearned for, his heart was shut off. Alchemist could not understand it himself, so he chose to get rid of his name. He never realized that by rejecting his name, he rejected his goals and his very existence.

"First things first, nuisances should be got rid of." Alchemist uttered, taking a needle from his pocket and piercing his own neck. "Open."

And a door opened.

* * *

**Phew. It's been a hard chapter to write. Except for part 3, but oh well ;) **

**First of all, nothing is set in stone. There is a strong hint at ToumaxAisa, but... it's Raildex. It can get pretty crazy. Expect everything, and if you've done your homework properly (as read the novels), then you would be able to guess what I'm getting at. Also, how was that scene?**

**Second, Amakusa scene had not been planned beforehand. It was a comment from MrTerrorist that caused me to write that part. And then the idea of Amaterasu spell came to me naturally, 'cause that goddess's myth is pretty similar to Kaori's situation. Check it out if you haven't read it yet! Also, it would not have worked if 'Amaterasu' did not have massive load of energy~ By the way, Tsushima simply complained. Kaori actually finished preparations for them.**

**Third, I'm sorry for massive load of information about alchemy. I did it only to point out similarities between Aleister's plan and alchemists' goals. Besides, Aleister was involved in alchemy himself.**

**Fourth, I just realized that I had been spelling Ezzard's name wrongly. Damn that. Also, his copy's involvement had been cut greatly. A pity it was, though. By the way, Kamijou's words were simply a wild guess. He was simply throwing fake's thoughts into disarray.**

**Fifth, vampire. I've been wondering how Ezzard sent back that crimson light at knights. Leylines? Using fortress as a magic symbol? It seemed a bit strange, so I came up with that excuse. Vampires have loads of living energy, after all, and alchemist had the means to turn it into mana. Also, it gave Aisa a final excuse to rebel against Aureolus. **

**And with that I can finally wrap up some crucial points in the chapter. **

**Now, minor things. **

**Of course, it's a pity that Accelerator had to let go of Index, but her presence did influence him, mind it. **

**Also, Touma is more practical here. He remembers his past, so he remembers what it felt to bring death. He's more vulnerable to psychological tricks than Touma without memories, but he can withstand the pressure, continue to think, and block unpleasant sights. Maybe. I want to explore it a little more. And his negation in his fight... well, it can be explained without resorting to outside knowledge, except for novels. But I expect you to have read novels, of course.**

**If you've got any questions about this chapter, feel free to ask. Also, critique is welcomed, because this chapter needs it heavily. With that said, till next time!**


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